The church where I grew up regularly hosted traveling music groups. They’d always have their LPs (yes, LPs) and other stuff—their “merch”—to sell, but at my church they weren’t allowed to do this. At least not in the target-rich environment of the foyer where everyone entered and exited.

The rationale came from this week’s Gospel reading. Jesus clearly didn’t like it when folks hawked their wares around the Temple, and therefore we shouldn’t sell stuff around the sanctuary.

To be sure, the place of worship in first-century Israel and the auditorium of a small independent church in Southern California don’t correspond exactly, but true to Jesus’s words, my church didn’t want the place of worship co-opted as a place of commerce. Which is good.

But is merch in church really the heart of the issue…or is it something more invisible and insidious?