I sat down to right an article for this week on the dangers of living in the “Christian bubble,” this little subculture we American Christians have developed. We have our own books, movies, music, apparel, TV networks, fad diets…even our own wrestling federation! Certainly, not all of it is bad (we obviously need worship music and news from a godly perspective), but we’ve created our own parallel universe that we can comfortably live in our entire lives. After years in the bubble, we relate less and less to our unsaved friends and neighbors. We have our own lingo (I’m probably using it now). We keep to ourselves, huddled in tight so that nothing can get in…including people.
As I was researching this topic, I came across an article on the Christian bubble from an unlikely source…GQ Magazine. Now, I could go on and on, telling you why we’ve got to stop living in our little bubble, but I think it would be more beneficial to hear it from the perspective of a non-Christian. “What Would Jesus Do?” was published in GQ Magazine in September 2002. In it, author Walter Kirn details his seven-day immersion in Christian subculture (what he terms the “Ark”), and he has some fascinating insights:
“If a person is going to waste his life cranking the stereo, clicking the remote, reading paperback pulp and chasing diet fads, he may as well save his soul while he’s at it. Holy living no longer requires self-denial. On the Ark, every mass diversion has been cloned, from Internet news sites to MTV to action movies, and it’s possible to live inside the spirit, without unplugging oneself from modern life, twenty-four hours a day.”
“Ark culture is a bad Xerox of the mainstream, not a truly distinctive or separate achievement. Without the courage to lead, it numbly follows, picking up the major media’s scraps and gluing them back together with a cross on top.”
Granted, not everything he says is dead-on, but as my grandfather used to say, “eat the meat and spit out the bones.” If you do, you may find some convicting truths about our bubble. I know I did.
Read “What Would Jesus Do?” reprinted at KLife.com.
Wow..what an eye-opener to what our "culture" looks like to the unsaved eye. He obviously doesn't understand why this culture has emerged, but it's kind of sad to think that after 7 days of being immersed, he is relieved to leave it. Makes me think about better ways to relate to the lost…anyhoo, just a few thoughts. Thanks for posting it Jeremy.
Hey Jeremy, good article. I've heard other people say similar things about the church imitating the world in a watered-down way and have been thinking about it. Does anyone have any ideas about what it would look like for the church to be the leader and not the follower?
To me it seems like it would require a healthy disregard for the goings-on in the world – being in-touch with it (because there's no way to completely leave it, and we shouldn't want to do that absolutely yet anyway) but sort of out-of-touch at the same time. As I think about what the church has done in the past as it took a lead role, I think about things like missionary movements, caring for the poor or others in difficult situations, etc. This whole media thing is a brand new challenge that today's church has to wrestle with. How should the church be involved in the media? Is being a Christian artist the same thing as being a teacher who is a Christian or a dentist who is a Christian? My thought is that we need to be very careful about the criticism that we dish out to those in Christian media, while at the same time recognizing that there are some serious issues in what has been done so far. On one hand we Christians can take ourselves so seriously that we kill off all of the creativity in Christian artists, and on the other hand there is the danger of simply seeing Christian media as another industry, another playing field, in which to rise to the top. I hope to get to some more specific thoughts about how the church ought to deal/lead with media, but right now I'm just cautious. Any other thoughts out there?
Oh I have quite a few 🙂 but I'll be careful. A good while back, I entertained some lengthy discussions about Contemprorary Christian Music, and since that time, have researched the topic even further. I've found that I can argue and debate till I'm blue in the face about CCM, Christian Media, and the like, but unless God gives light to the person I'm talkin' to, it's rather useless. Nevertheless, I'll indulge in it a little bit.
The core issue here isn't whether to use media (movies, music, etc.), it's worldliness. What is our description of worldliness? And as a young believer, I don't have a concise answer for that at this time. I would submit it is striving in all things not to be like the world; "avoiding all appearances of evil." Now, as to the specifics, I can't answer that, and I believe it is between an individual and God as to where one stands on that issue. I would say this: why do we need to replace the things of the world (i.e. "bibleman" or worldly music with christian lyrics, or whatever)? Why not just do away with them? old things are passed away… We have a new song, so what is the need to have a "sub-culture"? I would submit that it is because of the rampant apostacy in the church, that brings in people who aren't even truely saved; and thus not having that disgust for the world that true believers have (or at least should have), they do just what the world does, only a little farther behind to ease their conciences.
I don't appologize for statements. I can do no other after reading an article like this one. Christian's are supposed to be loving and kind, but compromise should be unheard of among God's people, and that is what has happened: The church has slowly given up it's doctrine and values bit by bit, until there is nothing but whitened seplecures filled with dead men's bones.