It's touching. It's emotive. It's gut-wrenching if it's a life you live every day, I have no doubt.
It's Dodge's Super Bowl 2013 Ram truck commercial.
I have no problem with commercials being emotive. I cry for commercials. I'm that kind of guy. But I recognize that the point of the heartstring-tugging is ultimately to push product. The test of quality of a commercial is not whether it makes a difference in the world, but whether it makes a difference to million- and billionaire stockholders.
That's why Dodge's commercial bugs me.
Forget the problem of Paul Harvey's theology. Forget that it neglects Genesis 3:17 in favor of glorifying of one of the world's more maligned professions. I appreciate farmers, too. I'm a huge fan of buying and eating locally. I support our local Farmer's Market, and my family has made a first attempt at gardening, ourselves. We'll do it again next season. But forget that.
What bugs me is that Dodge is using the name of God to sell product. It is not excusable by simply claiming that at least Dodge is putting God's name in the public sphere. If anything, that's worse. Using God's name as a selling point makes a mockery of God. It reduces God to an advertising tool. It is a use of the name of God that is unrelated and contrary to the nature of God. It serves greed instead of generosity. It serves the rich rather than the poor. It takes the name of God, in short, in vain.
And that's a problem.
I know there are other problems with commercials. I know that objectification of women and glorification of alcohol and idolatry of product are major problems in commercials. I get that. I'm not minimizing that.
But Dodge's commercial is subtle and subversive enough that Christians are praising it.
Christians are praising the idolatry and blasphemy of Dodge's commercial without knowing they're doing it.
We need to be very careful about how desperate we are to make God's name known. We need to make sure we aren't misrepresenting our Savior and our Hope. We need to be very clear about what's appropriate and what's not.
And we need to be very clear in calling this commercial what it is. It is idolatry. It is a vain use of God's name. It is blasphemy.
