The hottest commodity of the recession: Your soul

Next week while you’re diligently multi-tasking at home, scrolling through jobs, networking with elementary school classmates on Facebook, and watching ‘The View’, you might hear a knock at your door.  But don’t get your hopes up.  It’s probably not a job recruiter.   Nope, it’s more likely to be a recruiter that reports to a higher power.  That’s right, according to an article in the New York Times, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, after ten years of scaling back their daytime evangelism, have decided to step it up again because so many people are out of work, at home and looking for answers. 

But it’s not just the JW’s that are responding to these tough times. Apparently, attendance is up at churches across the board, especially for the Evangelicals.  I really hadn’t thought about this direct relationship between recession and increased church attendance before, but I suppose it makes sense.  Like Rev. Don MacKintosh says in the article, “…every Christian revival in this country’s history has come off a period of rampant greed and fear.  That’s what we’re in today – the time of fear and greed.”  

Is it greedy to take advantage of people’s feelings of greed and fear?  I guess it doesn’t seem that way if you’re in the soul-saving business.  

So as the economy flounders, remember that the stock price on your soul is going through the roof.  Don’t be surprised if you start hearing even more knocks on the door.  The Mormons will follow suit, and grim attendance at Catholic and Protestant churches over the years may even motivate these old schoolers to be more proactive with their evangelism.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll open your door one day to see Tom Cruise jumping up and down and trying to connect electrodes to your head.  He might actually be able to hook you up with a job in return.  Can’t hurt to ask.