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I must confess that I have grown up emmersed in Christian culture. I love getting my LightHouse Christian book store ads in the mail, I love the books that I have been writing about in my former two posts. Now, as I am older and regretfully a bit jaded, I waver between loving and hating the marketing promotions, sitckers, shirts, books...that Christian Culture produces.
On the one hand, they are helpful. The provide almost a sanctuary from the world. A curtain that seperates madness from serenity. Its a nap in the afternoon. Hot cocoa when it's raining. A snow cone on a hot summer day.
On the other, it's un-nerving. They provide an empire from the world that closes us off more than what is good for us. It's a blanket of security. It's a tightly knitted crochet that is perfect in front and messy in back. A cold Shower in the morning. Cold coffee in the pot.
 I work for a Christian magazine that leads me into what feels like Christian culture hotspots: Gospel Music Awards, online communities, and this week: National Worship Leader Conference. Today was the first day on the job, and I was a smoothie of humility/conviction/exhaustion/excitement. It's taking place at Riverbend church in Austin, Texas. (Yes, for those avid fans, where Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey got married...) and as I stepped on to the giant "campus" (that is what we always call them in California) there was something about it that did not cause a sense of resentment rising up in me. For once in my life I did not hat the big building, nor did I despise the 8,000 member congregation. I was happy to be in the midst of something that God was doing, and although I was hesitant as I was unpacking the many books, CDs and t-shirts, I was overflowed with a sense of joy that I have not felt in a long time.
Maybe Christian culture is not that bad. Maybe there is something to be sad about Christians gathering to praise their Savior and to be sharpened by one another. Of course the pendulum can swing too much one way, but how much will we learn from one another when we come together and try to leave ourselves behind?
My attitude about Christian culture is on a quick turn around. Being on both ends of the spectrum, my prayer is that my heart with find the place in the middle. I do not want to despise what we produce, but I want to embrace it, love it, learn from it and teach it. |
Comments
When my family and I came back from working several years in a Muslim country, we went into a Christian bookstore and it made me so angry that I was almost physically ill. In the country from which we had just come, people experienced isolation, estrangement, arrest, torture and death for their commitment to Christ. I knew people whose personalities were forever altered after spending some time in interrogation with the security forces investigating the possible spread of Christianity within the country. When I saw plaques and pot holders with pictures of mice and cute bunnies quoting Bible verses I wanted to turn over the tables and shout that this is not what Christianity is about.
It's been a few years and I've mellowed a bit, but I think we must recognize that what passes for "Christian culture" in the United States is a thin veneer, compared to the solid wood of faith in most of the rest of the world.
Doc
Thanks for your thoughts Bonnie.
Doc, I strongly agree with you. I subscribe to the Voice of the Martyrs magazine and at least once a month I am reminded of the true cost of discipleship. "Christian" bookstores are generally utter trash with a fish slapped on top so that people are assured its ok, that it's safe from the world, which apparently is the most important aspect of Christian Culture.
Bonnie, I think we have to very, very careful how we look at what has become known as the Christian ghetto. You do a good job of presenting both good and bad sides of it, but I don't think I agree with your good reasons. We should not be drawn to it because it provides us with a sanctuary or separating curtain from the world. We are not called to be separate from the world by creating our own imitation of it. Commenting on the situation, Justin Taylor notes:
"It seems to me that these folks have inverted Jesus' idea of being "in, not of" the world (John 17:14-18) so that they are of the world but not in it."
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2006/07/la-times-on-icrs.html
If there is any value in the Christian bubble, it should be that it causes "Christians gathering to praise their Savior and to be sharpened by one another." Yet the catch is that this is exactly what the local and universal church is commanded to do. If we are looking for Christian Retail to provide us with this sharpening, then I think that shows the failure of the church to do its job.
There are plenty of reasons to despise much of what is produced in "Christian" culture, and those reasons should not be glossed over. The fact that the biggest Christian publishing companies are no longer run by Christians should make it clear that the primary motive in the Christian culture is monetary profit (with a close second being isolation from the world), not the proclamation of the Gospel or the edification of the sheep.
Musician Steve Camp (nominated for Dove Awards) wrote his 107 Theses addressing this issue:
http://www.a1m.org/page.php?page=template10.php&pageid=fcf54d19dd342ec4d...
Bonnie, I appreciate your honest evaluation of the "Christian culture," specifically the world of Christian bookstores, magazines, music, even churches. What I really like is the conversation your post has already stimulated. I am especially interested in these thoughtful comments because I used to work in a Christian bookstore. I can understand the anger and resentment that some people feel towards anyone or any company that would propose to make "profit" on Christian products, especially Bibles! In the store where I worked, it wasn't all that unusual for people to come in and call the owners "moneychangers" and the like (although nobody turned over any tables, at least not in my experience).
Christian "products" notwithstanding, your point about the need for Christians to gather together to be sharpened is very good. The danger, of course, is that we stay in our enclaves (or ghettos) and expect other people to come to us rather than vice-versa.
The whole point may be moot, at least as far as Christian retail stores are concerned. When I was working in Christian retail, there were more than 5,000 stores in America alone. Today there are just over 1,000. Maybe in time there won't be any Christian stores, or Christian publishers, or Christian broadcasters. I wonder what there will be instead? Maybe people self-publishing and self-broadcasting. The technology certainly exists for this to happen.
Something seismic is going on, that's for sure. Even many churches are experiencing precipitous drops in attendance as people increasingly turn their backs on the "institutional" church and look instead to small gatherings without all the "trappings."
Keep giving us your insights. We need to see this issue from all sides!
Stan, I just wanted to clarify. I'm not opposed to selling Bibles for profit. I'm a capitalist through and through. However, if monetary profit (I say this because there are many different forms of profit) becomes the primary motive, then the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the saints will take a back seat. http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2006/05/golden-fleece-1-of-2.html
Thanks for your thoughts.
Good point. I'll give one example of a company that sells Bible--millions of Bibles--with nothing but the highest of "motives." The company is Tyndale House, publishers of the Living Bible and the New Living Translation. Ironically, Ken Taylor, founder of Tyndale House, was reviled by Bible "purists" when he did his Living Bible paraphrase back in the 1960s. Yet his goal to help people understand the Scriptures better stimulated other translations, such as the NIV (Tyndale eventually did their own translation, the New Living Translation). Even more significantly, Taylor founded Living Bibles International and funded it with "profits" from Living Bible sales. Over the years Tyndale has poured $50 million into this foundation, with virtually all of the money going to missions.
Sounds like a good example. Thanks.
You can include me with those Bible "purists" who think the Word of God should not be altered by man, regardless of the motives.
Actually, I should probably define "purists" the way I was using it. The people who believed Ken Taylor was committing heresy with the Living Bible paraphrase were the "King James Only" people who believed that any Bible translation other than the KVJ was anathema. There motto was, "If it's good enough for the apostle Paul, it's good enough for me!"