There is a well-known phrase used in real estate assessment in determining a home’s marketability and sale value. The phrase describes a property’s “curb appeal.” As a potential buyer drives up to the address listed by the real estate agent, the “curb appeal,” (the first impression and overall attractiveness of the exterior of the home) will determine whether there is any interest in pursuing what is on the inside.
Recently I have been hearing an advertisement for a local garage door company that advertises itself as having the ability to improve the curb appeal of any home. When it comes to a garage door, they “install the best and service the rest” in their company’s promise to improve the curb appeal – and therefore the value – of any home.
It is an engaging marketing effort. It attracts the attention of all who care about the sale value of their homes. It touches the interest people have in wanting to be associated with a home that has curb appeal. Indeed, living in a place that conveys an opposite message of “who-would-want-to-go-into-that-place” is not a particularly happy prospect.
Working on the exterior of things is important to most all of us. It is why, in part, we mow the grass, fix broken windows, paint, and accomplish many other things to keep our places up and presenting, as best we can, a place which seems welcoming, cared-for, and comfortable.
This is all understandable in the world of real estate value. But, what if “curb appeal” was our only focus? What if there were no interior amenities? What if there was nothing attractive about what was within the walls? What if the interior was in a state of disrepair because all the resources and all the real interest was focused on the exterior – the view from the curb? What if the kitchen was a mess? What if the bathroom made a visitor wish he or she was wearing a hazmat suit?
OK, get ready. Here comes the analogy.
While there are wonderful exceptions, it seems that the great majority of organized religious expression in America today has as its focus, curb appeal. The congregations which are growing and those seeking to attract more ‘buyers’ attention from the secularized, polarized masses out on the curb, are those led by those whose focus is on an attractive, convenient exterior. Easy parking or free pick up and delivery, sanctuaries that are sound and light stages for the performance of easy listening with video presentation, and messages claiming to install the “spiritually best and to hell with all the rest” of perspectives, world views, social, political, and biblical – or not – understandings.
There is nothing wrong with attention given to curb appeal by those who give life to places of worship. Why gather in a synagogue, temple or church that looks foreboding, uncared for, broken, and devoid of any evidence of positive, spiritual energy to be found inhabiting the sacred space? But, there is a great deal wrong if the curb appeal is appealing only to the exterior attractions which are so prevalent in our woefully polarized society. There is a great deal wrong if the curb appeal of a place of worship is only one more example of an American gated community where the goal is to attract the same group of people and weaponize their thinking or prejudice with a sanctified self-righteousness.
One only need think of the undergirding and voting block support for white supremacist culture widely offered by the people who identity as white, evangelical protestants to see the danger of designing curb appeal religion. One only need look at the impact of the curb appeal of America’s TV evangelists teaching, preaching, and living the perversions of a “prosperity gospel” (theirs, not yours) to recognize the danger of the curb appeal of the mega-church model of American, civil religion.
Curb appeal focus by American, religious expression is a spiritual cancer which has infected all organized religious institutions and congregations in this country. The declining mainline denominations, desperate for renewal, often try to mimic and lionize the curb appeal of the American, independent, “give ‘em what they want and what will make ‘em feel good” of the mega-church. “We need to get more butts in the pew.” Leaders of those denominations will deny it, but they will champion the Americanized, church growth success models all the same. And as for independent, American Protestant churches – which have always thrived around the leadership of an untethered personality and have always done whatever looks good, “sells well”, is “popular” and evidences the emotional curb appeal of the moment – there has always been a no fault/no foul approach to “evangelizing” the masses.
It is no surprise that the first of what millions refer to and know as The Ten Commandments prohibits making idols; all sorts of “graven images” (Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10).
Graven images ALWAYS misrepresent the Creator. The images human beings attempt to create of the One Who Cannot Be Contained and Defined by a picture, image, sculpture, or physical design of any kind will ALWAYS minimize, restrict, and seek to control what the Creator of All is about. This is why the graven (manufactured or hand-crafted) image is a top ten prohibition.
A gated community with a fenced in, huge parking lot, surrounding an impressive new building with a cross on top of it and oozing tons of curb appeal in the most attractive locations in American suburbia may seem inviting and beckon us in. But there is often very little inside of spiritual value. The theological kitchen is a mess, and the bathrooms are breeding grounds for infectious, spiritual disease.
Indeed, American religion with great curb appeal is just another graven image with a hollow center. We need the protection of a spiritually enriched ‘home’, a hazmat suit against the infections of false gods of American, civil religion. Or, as the Apostle Paul described thousands of years ago, the daily and often difficult spiritual work of “putting on the whole armor of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-13).
In a country of curb appeal religion, we need to be putting on the WHOLE armor of God. In a country of weekly mass shootings, political endeavors that more and more seek to suppress the votes of citizens, the denial of God-given mental ability to achieve scientific discovery, and PERHAPS WORST OF ALL the advocacy of a graven image of Jesus as the standard bearer for white, supremacist prejudices and male-dominated tribes carrying and buying more guns, we need to be putting on the whole armor of God, not a cheap suit of American, curb appeal religion.
We need to seek out such worship spaces. They are more and more difficult to find. But they are there and a wonderfully faithful alternative to the big box, curb appeal religious stores near you…and me.