Brand confusion

  This year marks the centenary of, arguably, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century: ‘the hoover'.

  In fact, the 'electric suction sweeper' was invented by Mr J Murray Spangler.  At the time, Mr WH Hoover and his son, HW Hoover, were looking for new opportunities for their harness and leather goods business and took up Mr Spangler's invention.  The first hoovers were made in America and Canada.  The first Hoover factory opened in the UK in Perivale in 1932.

  The fascinating thing about the hoover is the way in which this brand name has become synonymous with any form of vacuum cleaner, whatever the make or model.  The same thing has happened with other products, like 'Sellotape' which, although it is a brand name, we regard it as being the generic name for any transparent, self adhesive tape (which, incidentally, was first produced as Scotch Tape, in 1931, by the 3Ms company).

  Another word that has slipped into common usage in a similar way is 'fundamentalist'.  This word has come to describe any person of a narrow, fixed and unshakable religious view point.

  Yet, this term stems from those who sought to follow the teaching expressed in a series of books published between 1910 and 1915 under the title 'The Fundamentals: A testimony to the truth'.  These were written in opposition to the development of a school of thought emerging from Germany which questioned previous understandings about the nature of Scripture.  Yet, today, this word  gets tagged on to people of all kinds of faith -  so we have Fundamentalist Christians, Muslims and even Atheists which, of course was never intended!

  This makes me concerned about the word 'Christian'.

  So often we are told that we are or should continue to be a 'Christian country' or that we should maintain our 'Christian values'.  What is often meant is a desire to see things continue as they used to be - or as they were thought to be.  The word 'Christian' has come to describe something that is an aspiration rooted in the past when, apparently, life was simpler, stable and solid.

  But to be a 'Christian' is to be a follower of Christ; to be Christ like.  That means being focused on fulfilling God's commands in our daily living; offering our lives as sacrifices to God; reaching out to those in need; feeding the hungry; forgiving the wrong doer; loving our enemy, and being committed to changing the world back into relationship with God.

  To be a Christian is not about being respectable and law abiding.  It is about living for, and building up, the Kingdom of God here on earth.  This is a far from comfortable task, with many challenges and changes for us to make.

  So don't be mistaken.  Let’s focus on what it really means to be a Christ follower!

 by Graham Clarke.