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Approaching the checkout line, there is the uneasy feeling that we, the customers, are in reality the ones being browsed. Dozens of digitally enhanced sirens call to us with hyper-real eyes (and breasts) as we strap ourselves to the masts of our shopping carts. Their songs are enticing: "Less Stress, True Bliss," "Make Him Ache for You," "Feel Happier in 24 Hours or Less," "11 Ways to Guarantee Financial Success." Many a person has crashed on these rocks, and quite happily too.

Judging from their headlines, these magazines cover about seven areas—a veritable "mini-summa" of our culture—that compose the good life, roughly similar to the goals mentioned by O'Shaughnessy. They include sex, beauty, health, information/knowledge, convenience, wealth, and celebrity. These categories have some overlap, but each one carries a distinct message.

What does the checkout line have to do with Jerusalem? In one sense, they overlap and compete, for there is a Christian vision of the good life, what we may call the good life according to the gospel. If the point of the good life presented in the checkout line is to become like a celebrity (or at least to dream about it), then the goal of the good life according to the gospel is to become like Jesus.

What emerges from a biblical consideration of these seven areas is that most of them (with the exception of celebrity and perhaps convenience) have their place, but only a place. Sex, beauty, health, information, and wealth can all be good things in the good life of the gospel, but not if they are elevated too highly. The checkout line puts our loves out of order, an indication itself of how culture can have a subtle impact on our idea of the good life. In contrast, the good life envisioned by the gospel relativizes what the checkout line sets forth as essential. Most important are relationships, primarily to God and then to others whom he has made and the creation in which he has placed us! We must keep the main thing the main thing, that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting peoples' sins against them (2 Cor. 5:19). Reorienting ourselves toward the good life of the gospel acknowledges with Augustine the importance of rightly ordered loves. Only with such a focus on the gospel can the truly good life come to fruition. Here we may declare with the psalmist, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8).

So where does this vision of the good life take us? Many Christians and non-Christians alike have expressed concern over the explicit images and headlines of checkout-line magazines. Consumer groups like the American Decency Association and Morality in Media have accused stores of indecent exposure. In response, Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the U.S. with more than 3,000 stores, placed covers over the more racy magazines. Such a step, though significant, can easily blind us to the deeper and wider troubles. The explicit sexuality of the magazines is only one part of the checkout-line good life. The subtle temptation of the easy road to financial independence, the instant gratification of a gluttonous sugar rush, and the juicy dish of Hollywood gossip are all dangerous, and no less so than the damning rocks of unrestrained sexuality embodied in the digitally enhanced, scantily clad supermodels calling our names. These other sirens call us just as seductively—though perhaps not as visibly—and require just as much diligence on our part. Christians need to realize the impact that the media has on us, even in the grocery store. Just like the Matrix, it has us; it is all around us. Being wise as serpents means that we understand what the checkout-line good life proposes and commit ourselves to seeking the good life that Christ himself makes possible and embodies. Though we find ourselves "in" the checkout line, we must not be "of" the checkout line.

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October (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51