The Dangers of Really Bad Christian Culture

Hannah Rosin from Slate.com takes on the "Deep Contradictions of Christian Pop Culture." Here are some excerpts:

At this point in history, American evangelicals resemble the Israelites at various dangerous moments in the Old Testament: They are blending into the surrounding heathen culture, and having ever more trouble figuring out where it ends and they begin. In politics, and in business, they've mostly gone ahead and joined the existing networks. With pop culture, they've instead created their own enormous "parallel universe,"

             

What does commercializing do to the substance of belief, and what does an infusion of belief do to the product? When you make loving Christ sound just like loving your boyfriend, you can do damage to both your faith and your ballad. That's true when you create a sanitized version of bands like Nirvana or artists like Jay-Z, too: You shoehorn a message that's essentially about obeying authority into a genre that's rebellious and nihilistic, and the result can be ugly, fake, or just limp.

                                                                                                                

A young Christian can get the idea that her religion is a tinny, desperate thing that can't compete with the secular culture. A Christian friend who'd grown up totally sheltered once wrote to me that the first time he heard a Top 40 station he was horrified, and not because of the racy lyrics: "Suddenly, my lifelong suspicions became crystal clear," he wrote. "Christian subculture was nothing but a commercialized rip-off of the mainstream, done with wretched quality and an apocryphal insistence on the sanitization of reality."

I'll let the article speak for itself.

Comments

[Bennett]

Mostly true. But what about secular people who convert to Christianity? When they are redeemed what are they to do with their culture? Abandon it? I know this is more of a hypothetical question and a common one.

However, I like it when Christian artist challenge the limits of what we consider "Christian" in music art and literature. I grew up on DCTalk. They were just young Christian guys making music that they liked. They were passionate about their faith, so they wanted their music to reflect that. I don't see how that hurt the art or the artists.

On the other hand, I was feeling repressed as a Christian teen and really wanted a way to be edgy without being immoral. I knew older Christians didn't like rap music. It was a way of having my cake and eating it too. So that's probably not right.

After being out of range of LifewayStores for a year or so, I went into one and I didn't know whether to laugh or get angry. I noticed there was a line of Christian tools--levels, tape measures, screwdrivers, etc.-- and there was a "build a Bible" section similar to the Build a Bear workshops for kids. The Testamints I had seen before, but this was amazing to me. Who buys this and who uses it? Are they better Christians than me because I use the non-christian hammer and sweeten my breath with secular mints?

[Alan Cross]

Good points, Bennett. Not all Christian culture is wrong. Some of it is helpful, especially for young people who are trying to connect with God in an understandable way. If it helps you grow in your faith and connect with the Lord, then it cannot be dismissed and should not be criticized. But, there are parts of it that you just have to shake your head and wonder what people are thinking. I thought that when I was in high school and also when I was in college and was just really getting to know Jesus. The answer comes in being balanced and seeking after God and not after stuff. Sometimes Christian culture can help with that and sometimes it doesn't. This is where discipleship and discernment comes in.

[Alan Cross]

One other thing: The most insightful thing about this article was that it was written at Slate.com, which is hardly a depository of Christian thought. I don't know the faith background of the writer, but I thought that the thoughts represented here were interesting considering it was coming from a secular source. Sometimes it is good to see how the world sees us. I thought this article put a light on that.