I watched a report this evening on the PBS Lehrer Newshour about the recent CBA Convention in Atlanta. For those of you not familiar with this, CBA stands for Christian Booksellers Association. This was another one of those industry shows where thousands of merchants come together in a big hall and display their wares hoping to attract retailers who will hopefully stock their items, and to make a few extra bucks from walk-up sales. The CBA Convention obviously involves religious books of a Christian nature. “Christian” here means the US heartland version of Christianity. But don’t think that heartland means back woods. Christian media is no longer a small-potatoes proposition confined to little book shops found in low-rent commercial strips. It now encompasses best-sellers and videos and rock music and software and Hollywood movies (e.g., Mel Gibson’s Passion); big companies like Warner have special divisions that cater to the faithful. In other words, Christian entertainment is now big business.

While watching the PBS reporter walking amidst the rows of DVDs and puppets and paintings and book racks, I couldn’t help but imagine a dark, scruffy, long-haired man running about, yelling madly, turning over stalls and display cases, and causing much pandemonium. But hey, I’m sure that security would pick him up on their cameras and have him out of there within 30 seconds. Within five minutes, things would be back to normal, and the pleasing sounds and scents of money changing hands in the 21st Century would once more fill the air.