The Salt Lake Tribune senses a trend.
“I’m a Mormon.”
“Meet a Scientologist.”
“I am Episcopalian.”
(I am) “inspired by Mohammed.”
“Catholics come home.” (Or is that “Catholics, come home.”)
As Americans became less religious, they began to look to consumer goods for their identities, explained Mara Einstein, a professor of media studies at Queens College in New York. They saw themselves as the person who used a “PC” or a “Mac,” drove a Volkswagen or a BMW or sipped a Starbucks latte.
That personal approach eventually circled back to spirituality.
….
The message of these ads is not just that we — Mormons, Methodists, Muslims — are normal, said Einstein, who wrote “Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age.” It’s that “we are you.”
There’s more, including more on The Episcopal Church with Anne Rudig, the church’s director of communications.
Are we you?