I grew up in church. When I was Very Young I loved the "Jesus junk".... the yellow, happy face erasers that said "God is Love" The pencils with a Bible verse. The yo yo's with words imprinted on it to remind me that God was a part of all the ups and downs of my life. I loved the junk; I'd memorize verses weekly for it, faithfully attend every Sunday school class to acquire more of it. When I was older I discovered The Source to all this junk, but luckily by then I no longer cared about that stuff; I ventured into a very old, dusty 2 story shop with orange carpeting, awful music, and workers who chose to ignore me, to could peruse the basement section that no one ever journeyed: The old classics, concordances and Bible dictionaries. Oh, I was a true nerd and so enjoyed buying these things, that the dreadfully depressing journey to the Christian Bookstore was worth it. I'd not been in a Christian bookstore in over 15 years but last year I was looking for a copy of Pilgrim's Progress and thought the Christian bookstore SURELY would have a copy. Nope. They did not carry it. As you stated, lots of Joel Osteen, lots of "art" with footprints and scripture, decorative pillows, bird feeders, mints, etc. I normally now don't even bother even going into my local Christian bookstore. It's a big one, not the dusty, dreary one of my youth but in many ways I find it so much worse. I tell myself that it's not their fault: They are just catering to consumers.... obviously people buy testamints or junk or all that stuff. My solution? Online purchasing.

I'm in.... I love to memorize!