Geez

If you’ve never seen Adbusters’ work, you’re missing out. The group has been responsible for some wonderful works of satire and critique, taking the piss out of commercialism and materialism with everything from brilliant ad parodies to their own holidays.

Now, one of the magazine’s managing editors wants to bring the same mentality to Christianity with a brand new magazine. Titled Geez, the magazine will begin publishing in November 2005. According to Aiden Enns, the magazine’s publisher, “Geez will mix the activist kick and visual pull of Adbusters, the intelligent critique of Harper’s and the subversive elements of contemplative communities.”

“There’s so much spiritual vitality at the periphery of traditional religious structures. I see it in Jesuits who resist the invasion of Wal-Mart, in evangelicals squatting with homeless people, or in activists staging a die-in against the latest war. We want to capture that energy and let it loose on other sensitive souls.” More about the magazine can be found in this press release, the magazine’s mandate, and throughout the magazine’s website.

Personally, I think I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, being a sarcastic little piss myself, I’m all for people taking modern Christianity, fundamentalism, et al. to task, or trying to urge other Christians to practice social justice and responsibility. Reading through the sample articles, I see quite a bit that I like. (The one on Lent as “a liturgical antidote to consumer stress and excess” is a good place to start, I think.)

On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if this won’t turn into yet another “cool post-modern Christian mag” a la Relevant, only with a greater emphasis on social justice. If it might not end up espousing the same sort of hip, pop spirituality it attempts to debunk.

That’s the problem with being too skeptical, I suppose… you’re skeptical even about the skeptics. Still, I hope the magazine turns out to be everything it sets out to be. And really, how can you go wrong when the leading article of your debut issue is on the spiritual value of raising your own poultry?