What would Buddha do?

WWJD -- There are probably only seven people left in America who still don t know that these letters stand for What Would Jesus Do?" These four words represented by the shorthand WWJD have become a fad rivaling hula hoops, pet rocks, and Beanie Babies. It's also big business--a growth industry featuring almost anything and everything that can be imprinted and sold, from bracelets and necklaces to travel koozie cups and refrigerator magnets.

This whole thing had its genesis in a Michigan youth-ministry group. The group had been introduced to In His Steps, a century-old book penned by Charles M. Sheldon, who asks, "What would Jesus do?" The original bracelets were born in this youth group.

Now, a decade later, WWJD has evolved into a capitalistic curiosity. The usual array of sweatshirts, T-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, and much, much more are sold. Web pages on the Internet not only make information and purchase readily accessible but also compete for the potential dollars.

One Web site's title reads, "JC Shopping Club." Their pious subtitle, should you have missed the message, is, "Putting Jesus Before All." They claim to be "the only authorized Web dealer of the original WWJD products." Among their claims: "It is nice to support the original company because it is the original." Also, "Much of the profit goes to support youth ministry." When I asked for information about this last claim, I was told that statement actually did not refer to their company but to their supplier of WWJD bracelets. Misleading?

With such persuasive thinking as "support the original company because it is the original," I would think there's an untapped worldwide market for similarly abbreviated religious consciousness-raising trinkets. How about WWBD--What Would Buddha Do? Would those Buddhists in the ever burgeoning population of Asia be a great potential market for such an enterprise?

And how about WWMD--What Would Mohammed Do? Today Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in this country and elsewhere, and strong in numbers in other parts of the globe. Another possible great market. And although the Jewish market is smaller--only about 3 percent of the world's population--perhaps a WWMD (What Would Moses Do?) might nicely round out these ecumenical offerings.

Years from now, when these baubles and trinkets start appearing at garage sales, secondhand shops, and cyberspace auction houses, another generation will wonder what this encryption WWJD stands for. Answers of course will vary according to a potential sale: the pacifist will be told, "World Wars Just Decimate"; the young poet will be told, "Walt Whitman Jots Dreams"; the political collector, "Woodrow Wilson Jangles Democrats"; and the moviegoer, "Wicked Witch Jumps Ditch." Such capitalistic creativity, short of selling futures, will ensure an exceptionally long and active life for this incredible array of merchandise.

Maybe Woody Allen had it right when he scripted the line that if Jesus Christ knew all the things that were done in his name, he would never stop throwing up!

Makes you wonder: WWJB--Why would Jesus barf?

PETER GILMOUR ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.