The biggest retail store in the world without question is Walmart. If one looks at the book aisle in a Walmart they can see a vivid picture of what is in demand from the public. This may seem like a trivial topic to blog about, but Walmart is not ignorant when it comes to selling goods. They know what sells and they know what doesn't sell. Therefore, they are a kind of picture of what the current trends are in fashion, food, and all else that the consumers are currently buying.
This being the case, I'm seeing that in the book section there are certain trends in the public based upon what the store is selling. For example, during George W. Bush's presidency one could find numerous books from liberal authors in the Walmart Best Seller section. Now with Barack Obama as president the books are more conservative in this section. Why? Because people's trend is to always blame the one in power, so in turn Walmart will sell more books this way. As I said, they are not ignorant.
Back to my point... In the "Inspirational" section one will find an assortment of New Age and self help books. One will also find some Christian authors, and on occasion a few with a sound theology based upon God's word. Although the authors will vary, most of these authors will be primarily Charismatic in their theology.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... you will most definitely see a huge selection of Amish romance novels. You may also see books that tell of children giving a testimony of an afterlife experience. What you are not as likely to see however, are books that cling to the Bible as their absolute source of truth, but yes thankfully, there are usually Bibles there for sale.
I believe that God can use anything He wishes to in order to speak to us, and if we are not seeing the reflection of our culture being displayed on the Walmart bookshelf, then we are truly missing something. I'm not saying to boycott Walmart, I'm not making any kind of statement except for this...
As believers in Christ it is important to understand the culture surrounding us if we are attempting to win the lost to Christ. This culture I'm seeing put on display courtesy of Walmart, is a combination of people...
Christians
Christians will find a steady diet of Charismatic theology, but on occasion will touch over into New Age philosophy as these books are usually intermingled on the shelf. Some of the books will actually be helpful to their Christian walk as the Christian authors do reference the bible, but some of the books that are more New Age may lead the believer astray from the truth, which is the word of God.
Seekers
The seekers are the people who may or may not believe there is a god, but they are searching for something more than themselves. Those who have come to the conclusion that there must be a god will seek to know more about him. Sadly, they may only to get a primitive understanding of God with the shallow depth of theology found in many of the books at Walmart. Hopefully the seeker will learn enough about God to make them hunger for more. Some may be seeking only to attempt to disprove God's existence. The lack of depth in many of the books may serve them well, for many don't want to know too much about God, for this would be too much to personally be responsible for. In this way they feel as if they are exempt from any judgment of God for they are ignorant of Him. In other words, they are seeking God with an ulterior motive - much like a bank robber would be seeking a police officer.
Non-Christians
The Non-Christian (hopefully not yet a Christian) are the ones who will look at the array of Christian books in front of them and see nothing with a lot of substance. Their eyes will then flick over about 2 inches away to the fictional section where they can read about vampire romance novels, or something else of interest. It isn't to be assumed that the Non-Christian is not an intelligent person, for many of them are very sharp. They are even sharp enough to spot the false prosperity gospel and other types of sensationalism and know it isn't authentically the real thing.
The one thing that all people browsing the inspirational book section have in common is they are all actually Seekers (to some degree). This is evident in the fact that they are browsing this particular section of the book aisle. They are seeking what? They are seeking to be "inspired" in some way or another. They also know that there are Christian books, so they know that among the other books they will be confronted with Jesus as well. The problem is will they get the real gospel, or will they get a false gospel promising that God will make them successful and wealthy?
Some of the Christian authors in this section preach the truth and some water it down. Will the person seeking God find the truth, or will they be deceived by a counterfeit?
These people represent our culture at large. The American Consumer at large desires the "God wants to make you rich" theology that is being preached today. This is something that I believe Walmart knows, and I believe it is something the Church should know.
