Talking with Willie Morris, founder of Faithbox

Recently, I wrote about Faithbox, a subscription service for Christians. Faithbox delivers inspirational cards with Bible verses and questions on them to encourage reflection among Christians. It also includes products that share Christian values, like fair-trade chocolate bars and goods from companies that give one-for-one to people in need.

In my first post, I wondered why people felt the need to buy things that are “Christian” even if those things aren’t specifically religious. It makes sense to me that people need to spend money on things like Bibles and christening gowns, but why look for Christian versions of chocolate bars?

I posted a call on Twitter for people who subscribe to Faithbox to get another perspective on this question, and founder Willie Morris responded. Though not a subscriber (I’m still looking for one to talk to–please post in the comments if you get Faithbox!), Willie obviously has a lot of insight into his company.

I spoke with him last week about his faith and what it’s like to run a Christian company. And I asked him whether or not he feels slimy marketing Christianity (he doesn’t).

Willie offered insight into why he thinks it’s important for Christians to run businesses. As he put it, Christians “vote with their dollars” every day, so we/they should consider where that money goes. Since part of his subscription service is to bring companies with strong values (not necessarily run by Christians) to Christians, he’s marketing products he believes in to people who are looking for ways to spend money that are aligned with their beliefs.

“We’re Christians, but we’re also consumers,” Willie said.

So, rather than thinking of Faithbox as a delivery service for Christian chocolate bars and other products, I could think of it as an advertising service for products that promote Christian values like fair wages for workers and giving away things to the poor. How Christians should spend their money “is a conversation we should be having,” Willie explained.

To be frank, I can get behind that.

I hadn’t thought of buying “Christian-approved” products as a way to practice Christian values–I’d been thinking of it as a way to hide away from the non-Christian world. But since Faithbox promotes products made by anyone, so long as they stand up for values that Christians share, the company is working to allow Christians to promote those values in the marketplace.

That is something that I, as a progressive Christian, definitely believe in. I want companies to give away more of their profits. I want them to pay their workers a living wage. I want to support small businesses that are run by people who care about the environment and their local communities.

I think it’s awesome that evangelical Christians, who I think are the main audience for this product (again, please help me out! Tell me if you get Faithbox in the comments, pretty please!), are promoting these values in the real world.

Here’s a clip of my interview with Willie, where Willie shares how he became a Christian (fun fact: he started out Catholic, just like me).

And you can watch the whole interview (it’s about 20 minutes long) here, and hear Willie explain how Faithbox is like Christianity for introverts, what’s coming to Faithbox, and how he reconciled running a for-profit business with being a Christian.