Sermo-mercials

Philip Ryken comments at Reformation 21 on a disturbing new promotional technique for "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe": the sermo-mercial.

Read the full text of the Philadelphia Inquirer article.

Here are the first four paragraphs:

Attention, pastors: You have just four weeks remaining to work a lion, a witch or a wardrobe into your next sermon.

Walt Disney Pictures is so eager for churches to turn out audiences for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which opens Friday, that it's offering a free trip to London - and $1,000 cash - to the winner of its big promotional sermon contest.

The only catch is that the sermons must mention Narnia, based on the hugely popular children's books about four British children who walk through an uncle's magic armoire into an enchanted kingdom.

Sermo-mercials are just one of the ways promoters hired by Disney and its production partner, Walden Media, are peddling Lion as a kind of Christian-themed Harry Potter.

I would say "I told you so," but this is more than I could have imagined.