Coming at ya like whirlwind

Sorry it's been a while. But now I have 2 weeks of Pentateuch and Postmodern Theology discussions and a white chocolate mocha as ammunition. The real question is where to start...

My classes are really great. That is easily the best part of being here. The profs are really intelligent and have tons of insight. It seems like everybody here thinks a lot like me and has the same questions and wrestles with the same thoughts. At least to some degree. We know something is not quite right with the Christian culture or attitude or.. whatever... in general. But we don't want to abandon this whole thing. Nobody says stuff like "hymns are not real passionate worship", "megachurches are all corrupt", "those people need to change this if they want to be saved" or "this is the only right way to do ______"... There is no identity caught up in "my way" of doing church or being a Christian. Instead people are trying to find out how to find identity in being a disciple of Jesus. Only.

So we talk about all kinds of stuff. In one class we watched Fight Club and then discussed what messages the writer and director are trying to convey. And it's a lot deeper than mindless violence and destruction... :) There is a driving theme in that movie that we have allowed stuff to brand us as human beings. We have become a completely consumeristic society. We are far more interested in the new flip flops that have a canteen in the sole, our favorite sports team, and who is the newest cool band than in the military oppression of Myanmar, the 1/3 of the world that lives on less that $2 a day, and the homeless guy sitting outside Chipotle. And when we do recognize these issues, we create a new clothing line with $40 t-shirts and $80 jeans to bring awareness to the issues...

I'm not trying to make anybody feel guilty. I'm just as deep in this as anybody. But see, that's the thing. We don't realize how deep this problem goes. We think it's just the way things have always been, so we try to find ways to fit good deeds into our lifestyle. But maybe the very way that we live is the real problem, and no amount of twisting and modifying will fix it.

Discretionary income has only existed since after World War 2. The men went off to war, so women had to work in order to keep the industry that fueled (food processing, weapon manufacturing, machinery) the war rolling. After the war, there was a huge influx of young men who had seen the world and didn't want to work on the farm anymore. But many were still young enough to live at home, so they worked in the city and found themselves with extra cash. Women started working and going to college, and advertisers saw an opportunity. War technologies, like the transistor radio, are adapted for public use. Now, for the first time, anybody can have their own music playing wherever they go. Bands like the Beatles are creating music that was unlike anything before, and all this combined to create this new culture.

Before the 50s, you wore pretty much what your parents wore, listened to what they listened to, lived the way they did. You didn't have a choice. Now, there is this split between the parents and their kids. There is a global awareness through tv and music and movies. And out of this emerge an idea of teenagers, who define themselves by being different. And how do you express that you are different? Well, you dress different and listen to different music and live different. All this costs money, because you have to buy the new clothes and music...

Fast forward 40 years and our total identity is found in how you dress and act and live and what you listen to. You can tell how someone wants to be identified just by one glance at their clothes or iPod playlist. And if you want, you can be someone different tomorrow. You can reinvent yourself anytime you want with some cash. And what do Christians do? We make our own clothing and music that copies everyone else. We say if you want to be part of this movement, just buy our new conference t-shirt and matching Nalgene... And we essentially say that no lifestyle changes are really important as long as you look like one of us... Is this really the message we want to send? No way, but this is what we are saying. Have we just gotten so used to it that we don't even recognize there is a problem with it?

And remember, I'm not pointing the finger at anybody. Half of my closet is Desperation shirts that I match to my tight, hole-filled jeans and 8 pairs of skater shoes so you can see that and my long hair and think that I'm a cool, laid back, fun guy who loves Jesus... Maybe the reason we don't see the results we want is because we are really just saying "Jesus is great but I'm really cool cause of the way I look". Maybe people want something different. Something original. Something that doesn't try to sell them, but still costs them everything.