Christianity and Pop Culture March 11, 2009

(This is an outline from one of the sessions I attended at the RUF Winter Conference in February of 2009)

Why should you listen?

-a fuller view of God and the world He created
-an entrance into conversation with non-Christians

“In an increasingly privatized, secularized society, people will not listen to the gospel from strangers… Not to people who come to their door, not to strangers who call them, mail them, or even advertise to them.  Our world is pluralistic, and our neighbors are not ‘unbelievers’ but believers in things other than Christianity. So, we need an entrance into life, a way to join their ongoing conversation about things that matter, since most of them are hesitant (for good reason, sadly) to join ours.” -Tim Keller

What is pop culture? It’s like oxygen– we can’t see it, but we’re swimming in it and don’t even realize how caught up we are in it.

How do Christians view pop culture?

1. Retreat: seek to avoid all contact with pop culture– it’s the realm of the devil (it is in and of itself “bad”)– or at the very least it’s trivial and not important
   • Dichotomy is set up: 2 categories in life– some things are sacred (quiet time, church, etc.) and some things are secular (working at Chick-Fil-A, playing football, watching movies, going to class)
   • What is wrong with this view?
     • Where is sin? “It’s out there in the world, waiting to pounce.”
     • What is sin? “It’s an action/behavior, so to fix it you need to stop drinking, smoking, watching R-rated films, etc.”
     • How do you get rid of sin? “Round up all the sinful people and put them on an island at sea.”
   • Mark 7:14-15, “Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
   • Matthew 12:34, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
   • “What’s wrong with the world? I am.”  -G.K. Chesterson
2. Infusion: inject Christian/gospel content into mainstream practices
   • A “Christian version” of the world… avoid pop culture, not by retreating, but by making a Christian alternative.
   • Examples: “Christian” bands/t-shirts/movies/yoga/coffee shops/malls/CCM (defines what is Christian music, which is a new concept!) Only in the last 50 years do we have a specialized Christian sub-culture of music.
   • So in the Infusion approach, sin is still “out there,” but “Why should the devil have all the good music?”
   • What is wrong with this view?
     • It reduces “Christian” art to only that which speaks directly of Jesus, worship, evangelism, or missions. It is only legitimate Christian art if its content/message is about God.
     • The content/message becomes more important than the beauty of the work itself.. What makes art Christian art? (in other words, it excludes anything else beautiful that isn’t necessarily “secular” or “evil”)
3. Consumption: we begin to hear about grace (no condemnation/God will not love me more or less if I do or don’t do this) and this leads to lawlessness… we can live however we want! Jesus has forgiven me so I can watch whatever movie I want/listen to whatever I want/go wherever I want
   OR
   we begin to hear about a Biblical worldview–hear about affirming the goodness in culture and engaging culture–but our hearts lead us astray ( we don’t really want to be saints, we just want to be known as saints)
   • What is wrong with this view? It takes the grace of God for granted and treats sin and its effects lightly.
4. Transformational: on one hand, Christians are to criticize what is wrong… sitcoms, billboards, TV, movies… on the other hand, Christians are to redefine what is desired.  Not just to see what is wrong, but to say what it is supposed to look like. “Sometimes people don’t want anything to do with Christians because all we ever talk about is what we are against, instead of what we are for!”
   • What is right with this view?
     • God will one day redeem everything, including culture (the collective ideas that make up culture will be in the new earth). This is God’s world, and He is going to transform it into ‘the way it was supposed to be’. AND He uses us to do this…
     • Salt/light: Christians are supposed to be salt, rubbed into the culture to make it taste better. And Christians are called to bring light to the darkest corners of the world/culture
       BUT
       There is a tension! Yes, we are called to be creation cultivators (Genesis 1). Go into every square inch of God’s world and live in such a way that brings God’s Kingdom there… and at the same time we are called “pilgrims” here on earth.  We are passing through on our way to our TRUE home… I think it will be a renewed earth… but we are also called foreigners and aliens here.

“Every religion serves two functions: message of personal salvation (how to get right with God) and a lens for interpreting the world (but not like glasses we can just take off; more like Lasik surgery to permanently fix our vision)… historically we have been good at the first (saving souls) and now Christianity has been boxed into the private sphere and has largely stopped speaking to the public sphere.” -Martin Marty (parentheses mine)

“I’m just trying to tear a little corner off the darkness.” -Bono