If you are married and enjoying the rewards of a sexually fulfilling covenant marriage, then this post will merely be interesting. But if you’re a single adult who finds yourself caught between the convictions of your faith and the desire of your flesh, you will want to linger awhile longer. Abstinence is a major dilemma, but its message isn’t just for minors.

When one’s sexual identity is under construction—say, at age sixteen—abstinence is a much easier sell. We know, of course, that our culture encourages early sexuality, but most adults—Christian or not—agree with the abstinence message, a message that promotes maturity, self-respect, good health, and responsible decisions. The most mature teenagers will recognize these traits as persuasive selling points.

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Americans love Faith served on a cafeteria tray, served up by magazine interviewers who scoop celebrity conversions into appetizing sound bites for the public to feed on. This week has given them plenty of new dishes.

This month in Rolling Stone magazine, pop-star Katy Perry (who is melting Popsicles from coast to coast this summer) declares that she still believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  As many know, Perry had a brief stint in Christian music before becoming America’s bubblegum sex princess. But her comments are so tongue-in-cheek that it’s hard to imagine she is taking anything seriously, including the divinity of Christ. In the same interview she belittles her parents’ Pentecostal beliefs (“My dad speaks in tongues and my mother interprets”) and includes extraterrestrials among her beliefs. I say her sarcasm is a very good thing, for if Perry and I share the same faith, then I seriously misinterpreted fidelity to Jesus Christ.

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Here's the trailer for the Hipster Christianity interview with Brett McCracken, Rebecca Ver Stratten McSparran, Laura Dailey, and Stan Jantz. The entire interview can be viewed here.

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Even though I don't agree with his ideas, I must admit Christopher Hitchens is a talented writer.  Here he writes an interesting account of his battle with cancer. 

What I find highly interesting, and inconsistent, is Hitchens' presumption of meaning.  Hitchens is an atheist.  In his worldview, any objective transcendent meaning to life or its events is utterly illusory.  No purpose here.  Just a random collision of atoms in this cold dark universe we call home.  Hitchens implies as much:  "To the dumb question 'Why me?' the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply:  Why not?"  "Why me?' is indeed a dumb question when there's nothing or no one to answer.

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If you want to see what sin looks like in a laboratory—a gorgeous, depressing, cinematic laboratory—then study AMC’s television series Mad Men. Its characters, although trapped in a very specific time and place in American history, reveal the universal way that human vice separates mankind from the divine. The show’s creators expose the massive divide between beauty and ugliness, a spiritual paradox where appearances deceive us on every level.

I find it hard to recommend Mad Men to most people, especially Christians. Its sexual scenes are uncomfortable; its vices are glamorous. I don’t let my children watch it. I watch the characters sin and then sin again with awkward fascination. I am both appalled by the protagonist and instructed by his self-deception. My parents, who met and married in New York City in 1960 and subsequently lived in real life with every cup, necktie, and piece of furniture on the set, would no doubt find the cultural references and costuming to be pitch-perfect. Yet I’m certain they would squirm at the debauchery behind the proper offices of Sterling Cooper. I have yet to recommend it to them.

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What are the questions you most fear being asked about your faith? Even as a trained apologist there are many tough questions I hope don’t come up in my discussions with non-believers. Some questions are simply difficult to answer. But we can’t ignore the tough questions. Such an approach is cowardly and counterproductive for the kingdom of God. We must—yes, must—be prepared with an answer for the toughest questions (1 Peter 3:15). We have nothing to fear because the truth is on our side.

I recently had the opportunity to endorse Mark Mittelberg’s upcoming book entitled, “The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (With Answers).” This book is based upon a survey Mark sponsored with Tyndale Publishers through the Barna Group of one thousand self-proclaimed Christians. They asked each person what faith questions they would feel most uncomfortable being asked by a co-worker or friend. Some questions are expected but a few might come as a surprise.

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You love an audience. If you were born since 1985, you’ve always had one. For years now you and your circle of friends have become each other’s micro-paparazzi, watching each other dance in videos, sing solos with ukuleles, write fan fiction, and pose for photo shoots. Andy Warhol, who famously quipped that everyone in the future would be famous for fifteen minutes, was not some cultural prophet like some have suggested. All he needed to do was read about the Greek figure Narcissus who after staring at himself in a pool of water was dying to upload that pose to his Facebook page as soon as he got home. Since 900 BC, I guess, we’ve been needing an audience. 

Now that technology has caught up with our narcissism, I offer some principles that might help guide our pursuit of an audience.

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So you’ve got problems with Church—the one with the capital C?

You grew up sitting in various pews, but after getting a dose of higher education, you’re not really into anything that smacks of organized religion. After studying the Crusades, learning what jihad really means, and reading ten bloggers rant about the Pope’s pedophile cover-up, you figure that all of these manmade institutions aren’t credible. The Church—any church—is just a nasty, manmade construct designed to give uneducated, needy people some scaffolding.

On the other hand, you also think that God probably exists, and Jesus and the Buddha and Mother Teresa were onto something good. You don’t want to adopt the atheist’s combative edge or the agnostic’s arrogant philosophizing, so you snuggle down into the cozy netherworld of Spiritual Living. It’s a one-size-fits-all accommodating worldview fed by books like Eat, Pray, Love and The Secret. Spiritual Living lets you pray for wisdom or wear cool T-shirts or even go to silent retreats where you can stare at the ocean for a long time. It’s tapas-style dining where you order tasty little samples of  religion’s best ideas—without the prix fixe risk. Come to think of it, if you don’t trust the chef to choose for you, it might be better to pick a different restaurant altogether.

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Tiger Woods is back, and the world is watching. Some are watching for the golf, others for the story of recovery and redemption in play. Me, I'm watching for the Buddhism.

If you recall, just a couple of months ago Tiger held that rather strange and staged "mea culpa" press conference, the one where he apologized all over the place and then pointed to Buddhism as the rock upon which he was going to stand. Tiger hasn't mentioned Buddhism since, but that doesn't mean he hasn't made good on his intention to return to his religious roots. Come to think of it, was that Tiger's deceased father or was it the spirit of Buddha speaking to Tiger in that kinda creepy but somehow fascinating Nike commercial?

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“I thank God for truth. I’ve thanked God for many things in my life, but never thought about thanking God for allowing me to truly know Him.”

These powerful words were spoken by one of my students last night as we debriefed from our mission trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. She was heartbroken that so many well meaning people believe a false gospel and yet, for the first time, she was truly grateful to know the truth. My heart was truly touched to hear a high school student speak these words.

For the past three days our team of six leaders and twenty-three students have been interacting with Mormon students at BYU, knocking on doors throughout Salt Lake City to talk about the gospel, and touring Temple Square to learn about the history and doctrine of Mormonism. My friend and fellow conversantlife blogger Brett Kunkle planned and organized the trip for us.

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