Selling Faith: Marketing Christian Popular Culture to Christian and Non-Christian Audiences

Scholars of Christian popular culture generally focus upon the messages communicated by the objects produced, or the way objects reinforce an evangelical collective identity. This paper focuses on the members of the Christian popular culture industry rather than the objects produced. Specifically, I explore how industry members address the tension that occurs when industry members must decide whether to target their marketing efforts toward fellow Christians, or toward those outside the subculture in an attempt to evangelize non-Christians. Data are comprised of interviews with employees at Christian record labels, publishing houses, and so on along with secondary sources devoted to the industry.