Becs and Bookshops

all said and done: Real study

You really can't take Bec anywhere. Yesterday, as her post suggests, a few of the good old Gush
crew (Sam as well) took to the streets of Melbourne for a bit of dagging around before Jas headed back to Perth where he belongs.

Anyway... we stopped off at a Christian bookshop that shall remain nameless. Inside, there was, as Bec said, an advertisement along the lines of:

Don't have time to read the Bible? Get a verse a day delivered to your mobile for only $X per month! Sign up here!

Now, from the theology student's point of view, I totally understand that such a consumerist approach to the Bible really sucks. Pulling 'feel good' verses out of the bible sometimes works. Sometimes the overall context is pretty obvious and it works. Other times you can actually really get the wrong end of the stick as to what it's saying. That's not surprising considering that the book's age is easier to count in millennia and it was originally written in ancient hebrew and greek. Anyway, I had no problem being on Bec's side for the "gee that's yuck" thing... not because I want to judge anyone for liking a one-liner out of the Bible. I hope that people really do like it... but because other people having an understanding of its message is also important to me, a retailer seemingly trading it as a commodity somehow detracts from that in my mind.

So, we disagree. Fine. Jas actually noticed it sitting on the counter near the cash register first and pointed it out subtly so that we could all have a good old snigger quietly. But with about 12 people in the shop including the four of us, Bec said quite loudly "I can't believe that!". I thought she'd stop there... but I was highly amused as the scandalised look on her face intensified and she piped up with a few more indignant comments like "That's really, really terrible!". It was a tense 45 seconds. It's not exactly a bustling bookshop... so the eight people in the immediate vaccinity, including the two sales staff, would have been well aware of the assertions... and equally powerless to stop the raving, ranting Rebecca.

I was extremely amused by it. It's the kind of thing that I'd do.

After a good walk around some of the better cheapo things to see in our fair city, saying "cheerio" outside the Melbourne Town Hall was a fitting end to a great day. I thought so anyway. ;)

Jas got his money's worth on the tour, perhaps with the exception of the unfortunate detour into Starbucks. The word is that he made it back to Perth in one piece.

re: the ad in Bec's post... it was "Real Living, Real Returns, Real Value" on the side of a building somewhere near the corner of Russell & Bourke Sts.