Just when I thought I’d seen it all, the parallel Christian universe surprises me yet again.Move over “High School Musical” – the church has created its own clean teen stage sensation, “Sunday School Musical.” Seriously.Here’s the project synopsis, from the Arts Alliance American site:

“This original production currently being filmed in Los Angeles joins the library of successful family oriented musicals such as ‘Grease,’ and the ‘High School Musical’ films. The inspirational storyline centers around a group of teens who when faced with the news of their local church being torn down enter into a song and dance competition with the hopes of raising the money to save the building. The direct to DVD production is complete with 21 songs, featuring 7 originals, which are composed by Don Raymond.”

OK, before you all get riled up about how we need more clean entertainment, let me say I agree with you. In theory.What I find astonishing is that Christians, who have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, can’t even come up with a creative new name for the project? They just change a few words and viola, Christian alternative.Pu-leeeze.I saw a ton of this copycat merchandising at the Christian festival I just attended, in God’s Garage Sale (a.k.a. the merch tents). Take any brand name product tag line, change a few words and you have a “new” Christian slogan. The Coke slogan becomes “Jesus, He’s the real thing.” Subway becomes “HisWay” complete with arrows on the letters. Intel Inside? “Jesus Inside.”Really? Is that the best we can do? The thing is, this might be a cute little movie, based on the trailer. But I just can’t endorse more copycat Christian art. Come on, people! We should be leading the world in creative art, not sanitizing current trends.(Thanks again go out to Dave Weiss, for spotting yet another great story.)RELATED POST Check out Guest blogger Pastor Dave Weiss answers the question “What is Christian Music”