Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BRAND (01/12/17)
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TITLE: Please State Your Religion | Previous Challenge Entry
By Adrienne Fetzer
01/18/17 -
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What does it mean to have a brand?
Most people think of a brand as a trademark of a particular company or product. It gives that entity an identity. Apple has the apple. Nike has the swoosh. However, the name or logo doesn’t define the product alone. Brands are labeled as good or bad based on many other factors: price, quality, effectiveness, reliability, etc.
To have a brand means to be known and classified. Opinions can be formed about a particular brand based on its popularity or notoriety. Many people make purchasing decisions based on their knowledge of a brand, even if they haven’t tried it before.
Merriam-Webster defines brand in many different ways. “Trademark” and “characteristic” only scratch the surface. A brand can also be a charred piece of wood, a sword, and a mark made with a hot iron as they used to use on cattle.
However, when I think of brand, something different comes to mind. I think about how even religion, Christianity in particular, is divided into brands. As a child and young adult, I grew up inside a Baptist church. When people asked what religion I was I responded with Baptist. However, that identity began to lose significance as I grew older. For a period of time, I didn’t attend church at all. I had no brand. Then I began attending a new church, which happened to be Methodist. Did my brand automatically switch from Baptist to Methodist?
What does that even mean?
Unfortunately, church denominations function much the way brands do. A person makes judgments about others based on what they know of their denomination. Catholics and Lutherans are very serious and ritualistic. Pentecostals are loud “holy rollers”. Baptists are Bible thumpers.
The problem with branding our faith is that it’s unfair and untrue. People get lumped into a “type” of Christianity and then are expected to behave a certain way or believe certain things. People are liked or disliked based on the perceived characteristics of their denomination.
Changing churches and denominations has taught me one thing: the only brand a Christian needs is Christian.
I may attend a Methodist church, but my faith is not defined by the rules and regulations made up by John and Charles Wesley. I am not a Methodist. I am not a Baptist. I embrace certain rituals of each denomination as I feel they enhance my understanding and worship of God, but my identity comes from Christ alone. My life – my actions, my decisions, my thoughts – are defined by His life and His death.
If you’re going to ask me what denomination – or brand – I am, my answer is this: I don’t have one.
I am a peace-seeking, love-offering, hope-enduring, Christ-following Christian.
Brands don’t matter. He does.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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