I am going to start this post with a disclaimer.  I am touching on a sensitive issue, and while I will express my opinion, it is only that. An opinion. I am absolutely not claiming that it is accurate or fair. In fact, I suspect it is neither.  Honestly, I am still really in the process of wrestling through this subject.  So I am going to address the topic in generalities, and I realize that there are many examples to the contrary.  But here goes…

I put it out on Facebook that I was interested in getting post ideas and a dear friend who has heard me rant on this subject multiple times suggested I write on it.  As I sat down to work on this post I became acutely aware that as easy as it is for me to blow hot air in black and white terms in a one-on-one conversation, the subject is actually very uncomfortable to address in a public blog because it is incredibly complicated. But now that the gauntlet has been thrown I am going to dive right in.  Please don’t hate me. The topic is… Christian subculture.

Having grown up in the 90’s I was fully immersed, but a research paper I did my junior year of high school changed my perspective.  Ever since, I have wrestled with how I should feel about the Christian bubble.

The topic of my paper was on the Christian music industry.  The bubble popped for me after reading multiple accounts of Christian artists (whose music I enjoyed but only heard about 3% of their songs represented on the local Christian radio station) lament that if they addressed the issue of suffering in their songs, it was almost guaranteed to never make it on air.  I would buy the CDs of Christian musicians I enjoyed, but the “positive, Christian, alternative” radio Christianity suddenly seemed very false.  I confess I became jaded.  Because I felt that, if anything, Christians ought to be able to address the topic of suffering.  Isn’t that the whole point?

He was despised and forsaken of men,
         A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
         And like one from whom men hide their face
         He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
         And our sorrows He carried;
         Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
         Smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
         He was crushed for our iniquities;
         The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
         And by His scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
         Each of us has turned to his own way;
         But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
         To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:3-6)

Suddenly the subculture that once was so refreshing to me left a bad taste in my mouth, but thankfully the Christian bookstore had a solution for bad tastes:

It also had a solution for NSYNC:

And Danielle Steel:

American Christians fear not: You can have sanctified fresh breath, boy bands to lust after, and romance novels to escape with just like those pagans, but these are “edifying.”

To be honest I have only heard a few Plus One songs and never read a book by Sharon Gillenwater.  So I am, of course, being snarky and unfair.  But the question has come up in my mind, what does any of this really have to do with the Gospel?  What role does it play in being in the World but not of it?  And why, why is so much of it so cheesy?

When I glance through the local Christian bookstore with its neon ichthus shaped open sign, I am often struck at how much of the shelves are made up of mediocrity.  And how irrelevant to a world that is suffering and dying.  And I wonder, are we doing any good at all?  How much of this stuff would be on the tables Christ turned over at the temple?

As I leave the store I feel like I want to apologize. Apologize to God for how bad we often make Him look.  Apologize to the lost world for how inclined we are to hole up with things that make us feel safe and then judge everyone outside our bubble in a way that implies Christ had to bleed just a little less for us.

And then my questions focus on me- what am I doing?  How dare I be so critical of others of my own faith?  What good does that do?  Cheesy or not, these people are at least trying to put a good message out there.  Plus there are plenty of fantastic authors and musicians doing amazing ministry represented in there too…

I think that the biggest issue with the Christian subculture, and my own faith, is fear. There is so much fear that Christians will become compromised, that we have to water down the Gospel in order for it be heard, and that we will get lost in the tsunami of culture change.  But maybe those issues are the byproduct of our lack of cultural engagement?

What if mainstream Christians had been on the forefront of Gospel driven discussion about women’s rights, taken our call to be stewards of God’s creation seriously instead of  dismissing it as a political agenda, or risen more fully to the challenge to care for the sick and dying when the AIDS epidemic hit?  I just wonder what things would look like if we were less interested in creating a positive alternative and more interested in living out our talents and convictions with truth and love? Maybe the outcome would be this: instead of supplying materials for painfully accurate SNL skits, those outside the faith would see something so beautiful and compelling and relevant that they would long to explore and taste and see how good He is.

The Gospel is divisive. It is not pluralistic.  Because of that I understand how easy it is to either fight the world or hide from the world- but what if we loved the world? What if Christians loved people who disagree because our God first loved us?  What if we were comfortable saying what we believe without hostility or fear- but with confidence that it is Good News for all people?  What would that look like?  Perhaps we would have a lot more books like Les Misérables or The Brothers Karamazov being written. Perhaps there would be more persecution. As afraid as I am of the idea of having what is going on in other parts of the world happen here, I think persecution would be better than the tragedy of Christ being seen as culturally irrelevant because of how much of mainstream Christianity portrays Him.

After all these questions I really don’t have answers.  I am aware that being negative and critical is not a solution either. So I want to explore this issue more. If you are interested in thinking about this topic too, here are some things to check out:

For The Life of The World: Letters To The Exiles (thought provoking video series our church has been going through)

Apocalypse Prize  (artists’ take on the images depicted in Revelation with amazing skill)

Outsider’s Guide to the Christian Subculture ( a much more balanced blog than mine on the topic)