This short film will make you laugh or gasp. Maybe both.

Rik Swartzwelder is one of those Hollywood types with a real faith in Christ. But enough is enough. He has grown tired of the increased tie-ins between Hollywood and churches. His response was to produce "McPassion," a 4-minute parody of uber-marketing glitz/kitsch gone sanctified.

On the McPassion website, Swartzwelder professes his Christian faith – and appreciation of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" – and then continues:

bq. All that said, I do believe that the increasing amount of church-directed marketing for entertainment products is fair game for parody and satire. Companies now exist for the sole purpose of telling Hollywood how to market their films to the "church crowd" and church members are routinely told by church leaders that it is their "Christian responsibility" to buy a particular inspirational or entertainment or both product (and that's what we're talking about here, products; many of which are generating big, big dollars). And it doesn't matter if we're talking traditional, mainline churches or hip, emergent, post-modern ones with ancient-future liturgy; it's the same deal, only the pitch and packaging are different.

Did he go too far? Or is it spot on?

Also check out this related post at Church Marketing Sucks and a great column from Terry Mattingly.