What’s the secret to Forever 21’s success? A designer named Rowena Rodriguez told Radar magazine, “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. But you won’t believe me...The Changs love Jesus!”

Love Jesus, they do. So much so that the bottoms of Forever 21’s shopping bags are imprinted with John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Meghan Bryan, a Forever 21 spokeswoman, told the New York Sun that the inscription is a “demonstration of the owners’ faith.”

“It’s a very unusual approach, and most marketers steer clear of religion,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in an interview.

The hamburger chain Carl’s Jr. (CKR) veered of the road with its 2005 Spicy Burger TV commercial, which was described as “basically soft-core porn” by Melissa Caldwell of the Parents Television Council. The spot featured a swimsuit-clad Paris Hilton soaping up a Bentley and lewdly crawling all over it before taking a bite of a Spicy Burger.

The late Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain, who began all board meetings with the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, likely wouldn’t have approved.

Alaska Airlines (ALK) doesn’t steer clear of mixing business and religion, either. The carrier makes no secret of the fact that when you’re cruising along at 35,000 feet, you’re that much closer to heaven. This is one of the tray liners Alaska customers can expect to see on their next flight:

Alaska Airlines could hit for the cycle by giving passengers sustenance other than the requisite pretzels and honey-roasted peanuts with Bible Bars, from the Logia company of Orlando, Florida.

Bible Bars include the 7 foods from the book of Deuteronomy: Whole grain wheat and barley, organic figs and raisins (vines), pomegranates, extra virgin olive oil and raw honey.

So, we can now get religion with our products. As it turns out, we can also get products with our religion.

Ever hear of a “sermo-mercial”?

Wharton’s online business journal, Knowledge@Wharton, reported that, in 2005, church pastors would be eligible to win a free trip to London and $1,000 cash if they mentioned Disney’s (DIS) film The Chronicles of Narnia in their sermons.

Mary Donovan Turner, academic dean of Pacific School of Religion in California, told the Honolulu Advertiser that “using Narnia in sermons makes sense to me. To be aware of what's happening in any kind of media informs preaching and often gives a relational tie to what’s happening in the lives of people in their community. It’s good and right.”

However, Reverend Ann McElligott, dean of Honolulu’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral, wasn’t quite so sure. This is what she had this to say:

“Oy vey!”

Yeah. What chutzpah.