In God We Advertise : Businesses That Use Christian Symbols, Slogans Attract Some, Offend Others

Buried among 18 pages of carpet-cleaner advertisements in the South Orange County Yellow Pages is one that sticks out.

“Born Again Carpet Care--Carpet Cleaners Who Care,” the ad proclaims.

“It connotes being a Christian company,” says Wendy Ellis, a “born-again” Christian and co-owner of the San Juan Capistrano family business. “But you can take it two ways: Your carpet can be born again after being cleaned.”

Like the Ellises, a number of evangelical Christian business people in Southern California are proclaiming their religious bent to tap into a little-known but prosperous market: Christian consumers. In so doing, religious scholars say, the advertisers appeal to fellow Christians to choose their services over a competitor who employs a conventional marketing approach.

Some “born-again” Christians allude to their religious beliefs in their company names. Others include passages from the Scriptures in their business advertisements. Still others place notices in various all-Christian business directories. But the most common method is the use of the fish--a widely recognized Christian symbol.

Most Christians say their intent is to glorify God rather than to drum up business. But some people criticize the use of religious ads as a marketing ploy that has little to do with spiritual conviction.

“What difference does it make if one has ‘born-again’ shampoo? Does it wash away sin any more?” says Joseph Price, chairman of the religion department at Whittier College. “It seems to me the selling of Christianity (is) an attempt to enlarge one’s sales rather than to espouse values such as concern for the welfare of others.”

The ads have certain drawbacks, experts warn. They can offend some consumers, particularly people from different spiritual backgrounds or those who don’t believe in a deity. However, in areas where there is a flourishing evangelical community, the advantages often outweigh the risks.

Recent surveys suggest that more Americans than ever are placing faith in religion as a means of solving their problems. Furthermore, nearly 90% of Americans, or 214 million people, identify themselves as Christians. Of these, the number of evangelicals has swelled to more than 40 million during the past decade--meaning that evangelical Christians now command considerable economic clout by sheer virtue of their numbers.

Still, Christian business owners play down the market potential of religious advertising, preferring to emphasize its evangelical mission. Publicizing their spiritual beliefs to potential customers, they believe, provides yet another avenue for spreading the Lord’s word.

Bob Lyons, who runs an electrical contracting company, published a fish symbol with his advertisement in the Long Beach Yellow Pages.

“I have been practicing it my whole life--that’s why I advertised with it,” Lyons says. “I thought it may make other Christians realize they’d get an honest shake with me.”

But Mike Yaconelli, editor of The Door, a tongue-in-cheek evangelical magazine based in San Diego, says the practice of using Christian-oriented advertisements can reflect badly on all Christians.

“What they’re doing is, they’re saying to other Christians, ‘You can trust us,’ ” says Yaconelli, whose magazine publishes some of the more unusual ads from newspapers nationwide. “The reason people don’t take Christianity very seriously anymore is because all people do is put it on their business cards and blab to get on television.”

A sampling of ads collected by the magazine staff includes an advertisement for a “Christ-healing tuning piano” published in a Milwaukee religious newspaper; a tire shop in the Midwest selling “Jesus Saves Oil Changes,” and a “restaurant for the righteous” in Dallas that claimed to offer a “complete menu of pure food inspired by the Holy Spirit and Bible food.”

Devout Christians maintain these are merely examples of nonbelievers who will stop at nothing to make a buck.

“There are a lot of rip-off artists out there that do the same thing with Christian ads, so it makes it very difficult for someone who is Christian,” says Roberta Cole, who runs a roofing company in San Juan Capistrano with her husband.

Christian Business Men’s committee spokesman Craig Kiggens says he has “philosophical” differences with advertisers who specifically target the Christian market.

“The biblical mandate is for Christians to be in the world,” says Kiggens, a field staff director for the national organization, which has 1,400 members in Southern California. “I see this as trying to be separate from the world.”

Most often, religion is used as a marketing tool in the Bible Belt: generally the Deep South, Texas, Oklahoma and the lower Midwest. Orange County, home to several nationally known evangelical figures, also has a strong fundamentalist presence.

Scholars trace the practice to the rise of the “born-again” movement more than two decades ago under the leadership of popular evangelical preachers such as the Rev. Billy Graham. Gradually the “born-again” phenomenon emerged from the fringes of American culture and into the mainstream, becoming a powerful religious force.

“The religious ads started with the Christian Yellow Pages--shop with us because we’re Christian, and you’ll get a better deal,” says Martin Marty, a professor of religion at the University of Chicago and a leading spokesman on contemporary Christian issues. “In general, it bred a lot of resentment among the non-’born again’ because implicit was that if you’re not part of them, you’re not honest.”

Richard Fouquette, founder of the Christian Business and Professional Directory, which has five editions that circulate in Southern California, says that is not his publication’s intent. The free directory has a circulation of about 400,000 and is distributed through churches and other religious outlets.

“There are lots of directories available all over Southern California. Jewish people have directories of their own; the Asian community has a directory for their people,” Fouquette says. “It’s not just Christian business people.”

Fouquette said the directory routinely refuses ads from non-Christians. In 1984, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith won a legal challenge against the now-defunct Orange County Christian Yellow Pages after a state Court of Appeal ruled that the Christian-oriented business directory could not require advertisers to qualify as “born-again” Christians. The policy was challenged by two Jewish businessmen who wanted to advertise their Grecian art in the directory and were refused.

Los Angeles ADL director David A. Lehrer, the Jewish organization’s attorney for that case, says religious advertising is appropriate when religion “relates to the essence” of the business--the use of a fish symbol at a Christian bookstore, for instance, or a Star of David at a kosher restaurant.

But in other cases, he says, this kind of advertising may be well-intended but ultimately is counterproductive.

“They are dissuading individuals who are not of a particular faith from using their services,” Lehrer says. “Many times, people do it quite innocently as an affirmation of their faith. But we try to tell them: ‘Your intentions may be quite noble, but if you’re wearing your religion on your sleeve, others will feel that they’re not welcome.’ ”