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Christians love culture!
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Hanna Rosin reviewsa new book by Daniel Radosh called Rapture Ready!, a book about Christian pop culture. The review, and presumably the book, ask the question: Can Christians participate in pop culture and still be good Christians? And the corollary question is, can Christians make their own pop culture without it being kitschy?
In the ’80s, Christians were known as the boycotters, refusing to see movies or buy products that offended them. They felt about commercial culture much the way a Marxist might: that it was a decadent glorification of money and meaningless human relationships. Then, sometime during the ’90s, when conservative evangelicals started coming out of their shells, they took a different tack. The boycotters became coopters and embarked on the curious quest to enlist America’s crassest material culture in the service of spiritual growth.
A good review and book to read. Rosin thinks there’s hope for us poor believers, at least for the youth among us.
Raised on iPods and downloadable music, they find it difficult truly to commit to the idea of a separate Christian pop culture. They might watch Jon Stewart or Pulp Fiction and also listen to the Christian band Jars of Clay, assuming the next album is any good. They are much more critical consumers and excellent spotters of schlock. The creators of Christian pop culture may just adapt and ease up on the Jesus-per-minute count, and artistic quality might show some improvement.
But never underestimate the bad taste of good people.
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Don?t blame racism
THE ARTICLE SAID: For this, the Christian pop-culture industry has a ready answer. Evangelizing and commercializing have much in common. In the “spiritual marketplace” (as it’s called), Christianity is a brand that seeks to dominate. Like Coke, it wants to hold onto its followers and also win over new converts. As with advertisers, the most important audience is young people and teenagers, who are generally brand loyalists.
Is this really then the heartbeat of Christianity today?
Honestly, pop culture and Christian culture are rather equally shallow: shall we say that Christian culture is merely a shallow imitation of a shallow genre?
We need to learn to have better taste: to read Milton and Dante and Augustine instead of Lori Wick and Frank Peretti; to watch Lawrence of Arabia instead of Kill Bill; to listen to Bach (and even good contemp. artists, who do exist) instead of techno. Find what is artistic and what makes you think and make that the culture.
Better yet: let’s just be aware of how high culture informs pop culture and how pop culture distorts high culture. Snobbery isn’t called for; we can still enjoy Kill Bill or techno, as long as we’re not under the impression that’s all there is.
I wonder if there is a connection between the rise in Christian kitsch (Jesus junk)and the church growth movement with its advertising/marketing buy-in?
The debate over Christ and Culture has been long and vigorous from Abraham Kuyper’s Stone Lectures (”Lectures on Calvinism”) at Princeton (1898) to H. Richard Niebuhr’s “Christ and Culture” to Don Carson’s brand new “Christ and Culture Revisited.”
I find myself being selective of what part of all culture I embrace. Music, art, literature, cinema and other things are good and have enduring qualities if they embrace or reflect an honest-to-God view of the world.
Kind of always thought the “marketplace” meant “of ideas”…not potpouri with bible verses on it.
So here’s what I’m thinking about this — once you’re a big boy or girl, you can decide what you want to feed your spirit with — trash or good stuff. The two are very obvious, and you really don’t need too much guidance from pushy liberals, or pushy Christians, to help you decide.
So grow up, make your choices, and live with the consequences.
HSK But never underestimate the bad taste of good people.
No one ever went broke overestimating . . .
The trouble with “Christian” culture is that it forces itself into a pageant of with-it-ness. For example, Harrison’s prodigiously stylized informality. Grim.
Christians love culture, but please tell Christians that they should be careful how they act. Too many Christians today act like two-faced theater characters; one time with the image of Christianity and another with the deception of the devil. This inconsistency alienates people from Christianity because the two-faced behavior is more a characteristic of NAZI Germans, white segregations, and other elitists. Remember Hitler had the best theater arts. It is like Christians got sold a new image and they wear these two faces like the Emperor’s New Clothes.
I encounter Christians like this more and more. As a result, I turn away from Christians who adopt this new two-faced attire because in my opinion they represent the deception of the devil.
The questions I ask when encountering a Christian today are: Does this person who calls them self a Christian act with two-faced deception like a wolf in a sheep’s clothing or do they stand and act like Jesus when people wanted to stone Mary Magdalene?
If they act with two- faced deception, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I know that I should protect myself from harms way because this person’s path leads to the greatest harm against humanity. On the other hand if they act with the kindness of Jesus toward Mary Magdalene I know that I should follow them forever. I evaluate Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Blacks and Whites, Mexicans, Chinese, and rich and poor in this fashion.
If churches would stop taking deceptive theater acting to the work place and the streets and once again consistently act with the kindness of Jesus, society today would change for the better. Christians would gain respect, there would be less civil unrest in America, there would be better communities, and probably even fewer abortions. Until then society continues to grow distrustful of all Christians.
What would help America is a strong sign from Christians as a whole unit, a public recognition that their two-faced deceptive actions had caused harm to many and that they are going to implement an awareness program to help prevent harm like that from happening again. Something like the Catholic Church did in response to the sexual abuse harm.