I’ve written about Chic-fil-a in my blog before, regarding its view of Christ and culture. As I sit here today I noticed their music: not just Christian contemporary but also a little country. Interesting. Do they equate country music as part of Christian culture?
Slate.com has an excellent article reviewing a new book by Daniel Radosh, Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. This article shows how Christians have embraced culture and began creating their own culture to parallel secular pop culture. It asks some engaging questions about what happens to the Christian message when we do this.
Many of the attempts of Christians to use the culture around them reflects a Christ Above Culture outlook. They are using parts of culture to promote Christ. This motive can easily be lost. One day you are producing rock music to attract people to Christ and the next day those same people- who are now Christians- want to purchase your music and only your music. That’s when we begin to sell out to culture and fall into the Christ of Culture perspective.
Today a friend and I went to see U23D. Being self-avowed U2 fans we had high expectations yet it was everything we could hope for. The 3D aspect of the movie was great. More than a couple times I found myself leaning over to better see the Edge since his microphone stand was in the way. There were times when I tried to move out of the glare of a spotlight only to remember that this was a movie, and I couldn’t do that. There were times when I wanted to start cheering with the concert audience but then I remembered that Brian and I were the only two people in the theater at 1:30 in the afternoon.
In this month’s column for the Lake Wylie Pilot, I try to explain why Jesus received gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Read the column for yourself.
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Exclusive to my blog I mention other interpretations I found and why I selected this answer as the best.
Urbanphile posted a great quote from Bono on his blog about the uniqueness of grace as a Christian concept. Although I usually refer to Bono in this blog as he relates to Christ and Culture- for example, Christ and U23D and Bono at the National Prayer Breakfast- it is nice to hear him mention the Gospel too.
All this is getting me really excited about U2′s new album (No Line On The Horizon)- coming out March 3rd.
According to the Worship Matters blog, the song, “Shout to the Lord” was openly sung on American Idol this week. I missed it because I stop watching the show after the try-outs- because it no longer justifies me. This example, however, gives me another reason to talk about American Idol in my blog- because it relates to Christ and Culture.
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This is a prime example of Christ of Culture because of Guthrie’s retelling of Jesus in terms of his own political ideology.
But wait, you might say, this seems an accurate description of what Jesus taught. I agree- to an extent. I appreciate Guthrie’s focus, especially when I think of all the terrible health-wealth, prosperity gospel preachers out there. These “preachers” are equally guilty of recasting Jesus in terms of their own (uniquely American) perspective that you will prosper if you have enough faith.
The other day NPR had a story about the famous radio personality, Delilah. She is known for her nightly syndicated radio show where she talks about love and romance, using popular soft-rock songs to illustrate the stories of her callers.
The segment briefly talks about her commitment to Christ.
She’s a devout Christian, though the show isn’t- necessarily. It’s non-denominationally inspirational.
This description would place her in the Christ and Culture in Paradox perspective.
This last weekend my wife and I went on a brief vacation to Myrtle Beach. We spent the day on the ocean and the evening dancing with the droves of people there for SOS. SOS stands for “Society of Stranders” and it is a regular migration of people looking to relive their younger days of Shag-dancing and partying to the wee hours of the night.
After a long night of dancing ourselves were were fast asleep on Sunday morning when a friend called. He wanted us to go to the Gospel Hour with him. This was an event where the people were Shagging to religious music. Feeling guilty for not going to church that morning- and wanting something to blog about- we made our way there.
When someone tries to use culture to promote Christ, as a proponent of Christ Above Culture might do, and then the tastes of culture change or someone from outside of that culture encounters it, it often becomes absurd. Case in point:
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