Bible in Disguise

When I first heard about Revolve, the New Testament of the Bible in the form of a fashion magazine (like Cosmopolitan, Glamour or Seventeen), I decided to find out more before judging the whole project. You see, I hate, hate, HATE fashion mags! I hate the whole philosophy behind them. I think they pretty much sell the wrong values to women, especially young women. The values that say that you have to be junkie-thin, wear the latest, most trendy clothes, wear the right make-up and have the morals of a prostitute to live up to your full potential as a woman. As far as I'm concerned, fashion mags are vapid, destructive crap.

So here we have a Bible in that's in the same format as one of these magazines, in an attempt to appeal to the teenage girl demographic. Many other blogs have commented on Revolve. My first instinct was to find the whole idea silly and questionable -- especially considering my hatred for fashion mags. But then, some have made the argument that Christians need to engage the culture and not act like we're up on a cloud somewhere -- that we need to be relevant. I agree with this.

However, there are things about Revolve which disturb me. Many of those things are brought up in this Christianity Today article. Is it good to associate the word of God with the empty-headed shallowness of fashion magazines? As pointed out in the article and elsewhere, fashion mags are ephemeral -- people flip through them and then throw them away. Nobody keeps them. Should the Bible be presented in such a disposable format?

Then there's this from the CT article:

On page 186, the girls can find "Top Ten Great Christian Books." C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers haven't made the list. Top honors go to Witnessing 101 by Tim Baker and published by Transit Books. In fact, all of the top ten books have been recently published by Thomas Nelson, most of them through Transit Books.

Here's another curiosity: The eighth of the top ten great Christian books is titled Why So Many Gods? Its authors are Tim Baker and Kate Etue. Kate Etue is also the senior editor of Revolve. She was the one promoting the biblezine on CNN recently.

No C.S. Lewis, but instead, recommendations of books that just so happen to be published by Revolve's publisher. That tells me a lot about this project...

But on the other hand, perhaps Revolve could have some value. It could at least get teenage girls thinking about what the Bible says. Once they are through with the "milk" that Revolve offers, hopefully they will be ready for some real "meat".

Also, I figure if Revolve upsets San Francisco Chronicle columnist and anti-Christian whackjob Mark Morford this much, it must have some merit. (Apparently, the very idea that someone somewhere is dressing modestly or practicing abstinence really chaps Mr. Morford's butt.)

So, to sum up -- I have to go with my initial instincts about Revolve being silly and questionable. However, perhaps some good can come of it. Only time will tell if Revolve bears good fruit.

Update: Oh, now this is too funny! Thanks to Alicia for the link!