Engage, Maverick! - Guest Blog by Renea McKenzie

I really enjoy Scott’s blog which helps us engage creatively and redemptively with pop culture which is so widely influential. So when Scott asked if I would write a guest post on discerning when we should and should not engage, I was thrilled and honored. I deal with the subject of engaging culture on my blog as well (though not nearly as cohesively as Scott does here), so some of my readers may recognize a few things I’m about to say, but this is a great opportunity to bring those somewhat miscellaneous thoughts into a more cohesive treatment. So, thanks again, Scott!

Throughout history the large majority of Christians, Catholic and Protestant, all across the world, have consistently believed that a major part of our calling is to engage our various cultural contexts to meet people where they are, or perhaps more accurately, meet people halfway, and be salt and light. We get this example from Christ himself who entered into a particular cultural context and met people halfway (between where they were and where Christ was wanting to take them, namely, the Kingdom of God) with metaphors and social activities they already had a cultural framework for.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Matthew 10 where Jesus is sending out his apostles. In his instructions to them he tells them to show ‘em how to live life to the fullest as we were always intended to live it! (“preach the Kingdom of God”), do creative and redemptive works in their lives (“heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons”), and in all this remember, “be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

These are Jesus’ instructions to us, his modern-day hands and feet. We are to engage. And we are to do so shrewdly, wisely and with discernment. Not everyone has the same level of freedom to interact with various aspects of our unbelieving society. Everyone is different. There are certain things which are particularly spiritually unsafe for me; I know it in my guts and bones; I just can’t go there. But I also know that doesn’t mean it is as dangerous for others as it is for me, and I don’t begrudge others their freedom.

Personal conviction derives from the way God has uniquely created us as individuals and how our singular personality and wiring is affected by the Fall – our particular tendencies, weaknesses, addictions, our circumstances, our personal history. These are the primary factors we should consider when we prayerfully decide whether a particular book, movie, song is spiritually safe for us to read, watch, listen to, and engage through our Creation-Fall-Redemption view of the world.

Anyone who believes he or she is safe from the all the various temptations available in pop culture is a fool. My friend and colleague Todd Kappelman wisely notes and advises, “Exercising rampant Christian freedom does not necessarily mean one is a strong Christian [referring to 1 Cor 8]. It could indicate that one is too weak to control one’s passions and is hiding behind the argument that they are a stronger brother.” When we engage our culture, we must use a “framework of moderation,” to use Todd’s phrase, that addresses our particular weaknesses, for we are all of us the weaker brother somewhere. We need to be honest with ourselves about our weaknesses, and the best way to do that is to ask God and ask other believers who love us and are discerning and nuanced in regard to engaging culture, to invite the inner circle of our faith community into the part of our lives where we ask serious questions about the books we read, the movies we watch and the music we listen to.

There is a difference between conviction and legalism. One of those differences is the legalistic compulsion to impose one’s personal convictions on others. It is possible to abstain in a genuinely free way. I greatly admire my friends who abstain; who don’t even have a TV, for example. Together we add to the richness of each others’ lives by bringing perspective to one another about who God is and how we relate to him. Together we present to the world a more complete picture. It is the diversity of the Body that most beautifully represents Christ to the world. And it is vital to our Christian calling to live as much as we can in the tension between the pulls of legalism and libertinism. The ebb and flow of this kind of living is part of what in means to live the full, rich, abundant life of Christ.

When you cannot personally engage by reading/watching/listening to this or that for whatever reason, abiding an attitude of general engagement as a member of the Body of Christ fosters that humility-infused unity so foundational to our new life.

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I hope you have enjoyed reading Renea's post. I think very highly of her and of the work she does engaging culture. She also has her own site that I encourage you to visit. Her posts are always very thought provoking and encouraging. You can see it here: http://reneamac.com/

Scott

This Week

This week, we will have a guest blog and a discussion about homosexual characters in television, movies, and our culture.

More to come very soon...

Elizabeth Taylor

We mourn today for the loss of someone who has been in the spotlight since the early 1950s. She spent a number of years devoting her life to charity. CNN did a really nice write-up.

Check it out here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/03/23/obit.elizabeth.taylor/index.html

Here is her twitter if you are interested in seeing some of the posts she made: http://twitter.com/DAMEELIZABETH

Scott

Change Management

In our culture, change is often met with opposition.

As technology advances some people dive headfirst into the newest and the fastest gadgets. Others almost disdain the new technology because they have just gotten use to the previous "newest" technology.

In music, new sounds are labeled as "experimental" and looked upon as a passing phase, until 10 more artist release material with a similar sound.

Christians are also known for standing in the way of change. Sometimes they are righteous for doing so, sometimes they are just scared of the unknown.

In fact, many people oppose change because it brings about something new, something unknown, and often times, something that is not understood. People are afraid of what they do not understand, so the knee-jerk reaction is to condemn whatever it is that they do not understand.

There are dangers in condemning new things too quickly. Many people look like hypocrites when they condemn something only to embrace it 3 months later.

There are also dangers in accepting change too quickly. Just because we can do it, does not always mean we should do it.

So we must learn to wisely evaluate changes in our culture. We must learn to seek understanding when it comes to advances in technology, science, and educational theory. We must learn to look at the implications of new standards on television, in movies, in video games, and in music. We must ask serious questions about anything that can change the path of our future, but we must not be afraid to progress down the path either.

We must learn to navigate the waters of change in such a way that we are not left in the wake as the world continues spinning without us. We must learn to remain relevant to our peers and so that we can have meaningful conversation with future generations, without setting aside our spiritual and ethical convictions.

And this...is not an easy task.

Charlie Sheen

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that we are condemning someone for being a womanizing, drug using, hedonist when we have glorified the character he plays on Two and a Half Men, for the last 8 years for virtually doing the exact same thing?

It seems to me that Americans are up in arms about his behavior in reality, but we condone and even love that same behavior on his comedy. Has it just not occurred to anyone that playing a hedonist for nearly a decade might have some very real impact on the real life character?

Charlie, or as I like to call him, Topper Harley, appears to be doing all he can to have as much pleasure as he can all at once. This is cyrenaic hedonism at its best. Is he really happy? Is he fulfilled? My guess is probably not.

May I encourage you this week to pray for Charlie and for him to realize that there is much more to life than simply living it up. Please also pray for Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber as they all learn to deal with the pressures of fame and as they learn to distinguish truth from fiction in reality.

Katy Perry, Christianity, and Music

Katy Perry has become a major music icon in the last several years. I think she is an intriguing artist. I like the uniqueness of her sound as well as her writing style. It took me a while to decide on how to do this post, not because I did not know how to present info on her, but because I had to spend some time learning more about her.

While her music is very appealing, it had not really appealed much to me, based on genre. As many of you may know, I tend to gravitate towards classical blues riffs, hard rock, and on occasion heavy metal. That being said, I do not spend much time with my radio on the pop stations.

Then recently, I was asked by someone if it was ok to listen to Katy Perry. Many people, struggle with deciding what kinds of music to listen to based on their moral values, more specifically, religious and especially conservative evangelical Christians.

It is interesting to note that Katy Perry's parents are evangelical ministers. Katy herself even started her career in the Christian music venue as Katy Hudson.

Here is a link to listen to her song, "Faith Won't Fail": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFvXOChyqdA

Her change from Christian singer to the singer who "kissed a girl" has been the subject of much controversy in recent years. Has her faith failed?

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, she stated that "God is very much still a part of my life...But the way the details are told in the Bible—that’s very fuzzy for me. And I want to throw up when I say that. But that’s the truth. I still believe that Jesus is the son of God… But I also believe in extraterrestrials, and that there are people who are sent from God to be messengers, and all sorts of crazy stuff… Every time I look up, I know that I’m nothing and there’s something way beyond me. I don’t think it’s as simple as heaven and hell."

A number of so-called "Christian" websites have condemned Perry. But then, people generally like to condemn what they do not understand.

So as I read what she has to say and as I analyze her lyrics, I am left thinking, this poor girl is getting battered for trying to make sense of her faith by asking tough questions. I agree with her that it is not "as simple as heaven and hell." In fact, faith is far from simple. Could there be extraterrestrials? Maybe, if God created the heavens and we cannot fully comprehend all of his actions, how can we rule out the possibility of life on another world. Are the details in the Bible "fuzzy"? Sometimes they are...sometimes they are not. But even when Scripture is clear, we can still misread it. Many do.

I think that a better approach than condemning Katy is to pray for her. Pray for her to have strong convictions and pray for her to seek the truth.

In an interview she mentioned that her parents told her that homosexuals were bad, but then she met a few and they weren't so bad. As many of you know, I do not agree with the practice of homosexuality, but I do not think that homosexuals are bad people, at least no worse than anyone else. I am not inclined to think that anyone is good either. Humans are fallen creatures, we are all inclined to sin and we all do things that displease God.

So when a person is told something his or her entire life and that something turns out to be not quite the way it was portrayed, then that person will naturally ask many other questions. For me, it was the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture. I was always told that the Church would be secretly raptured  before the end times--that would last 7 literal years. Later in life, I realized that for nearly 2,000 years no Christian believed in such a rapture. I also learned that when reading the Bible, if all the passages about Christ's return are post-tribulational, then there are fewer seeming contradictions in the text. Thus, I changed my belief.

So in short, condemning Katy Perry is not the answer, and neither is banning all of her music.

On her most recent album, Teenage Dream, the songs Firework and Who Am I Living For? are both exceptionally positive songs. The title track, and its video are a bit less satisfactory in message, but seem to be an accurate portrayal of truth and reality for many people. While I disagree with the content, it is educational and talking through it might help one gain a new perspective on how so many see the world, especially in their mid-twenties.

Her breakthrough single, "I kissed a Girl" is also a song with some rather questionable value, but again, it can be educational.

I guess it goes back to turning on your mind when you listen and not simply trying to escape.

I find pleasure in music, but I do not find pleasure in any music so much so that I do not think about a songs meaning. If I disagree with the meaning of the song, at least I have engaged it in dialog.

So what does all this mean?

Simple, do not condemn an artist without trying to understand the artist. Do not forbid listening to something just because you disagree with it. But do not listen to anything without first being a critical listener, otherwise you will be effected by the message, even if you do not realize it at the time. Once you understand the message, you are free to engage the song in dialog by choosing what to accept and what to reject in what it promotes. Then as you listen to the song, you will be consciously aware of what you are putting into your mind, and you will be able to guard your heart accordingly. If you cannot do this, you may not be ready to listen yet. If you can, you may find yourself taking less pleasure in music that defies your moral values. But condemning a song and condemning an artist are two completely different things.

Any thoughts....

Miley Cyrus

Last week, this teen sensation hosted Saturday night live. The opening monologue featuring Miley included a song called "I'm Not Perfect." In the song she pokes fun of herself for the mistakes she has made, but she also notes that she is not nearly as bad as most teen celebrities  who "make mistakes."


So you may be asking, should I let my daughters watch Hannah Montana? Should we shelter them from her music now?

Simply put...I do not think you should keep your children from listening to her. In other words, YES...let them hear her music.

And when she makes mistakes, as a parent, you can talk with your kids about how she is not perfect, but how she is trying to do right and that she is still very talented. Her mistakes do not make her a less valuable human being. Maybe your kids could even learn from some of her mistakes.

next up...Katy Perry and God

Rob Bell and Hell Part 2

And now...The Answers

First, should we condemn him or should we simply disagree with him about this point?

I do disagree with his point of view, but I am not inclined to think that he is less of a Christian.

Is the issue of hell and essential doctrine of the faith?
Yes and no. It is clearly a doctrine of the faith, but it is not  a doctrine with bearing on salvation through Christ.

Do some, especially extreme conservatives make the gates too narrow, while others (those teaching universalism) make the gates too broad? I do think some make teh gate too narrow. For example, saying that if you did not pray the sinners prayer, you are not saved. If you believe in Christ as the God-Man and have a relationship with him, you are saved. Others seem to think that everyone is ok, and that no one will go to hell. But this seems inconsistent with the passages in the Bible that mention Hell.

We make room for children who never hear the Gospel and call it the age of accountability. When does someone move past that age? I think that God knows teh heart and tha capacity of teh heart to accept him if given opportunity. God also desires to save all people. I think this question requires a gray answer. We do not know when someone becomes accountable, because we do not know the heart, but God does, and we can trust him even if it is different for every person.

Are we trying too hard to put God into a nice little box where heaven and hell are clear? Have we missed something in the gray? Perhaps. We cannot comprehend all we would like to know about God, we can only know what he has revealed to us. He has not revealed everything about himself or his ways. And we must be at peace with that.

Rob Bell and Hell

Rob Bell, Pastor of Mars Hill is under attack this week for potentially stating that everyone goes to heaven. You can read the article here.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/01/what-is-a-heretic-exactly-in-the-evangelical-church/

My question is this? First, should we condemn him or should we simply disagree with him about this point?

Is the issue of hell and essential doctrine of the faith?

Do some, especially extreme conservatives make the gates too narrow, while others (those teaching universalism) make the gates too broad?

We make room for children who never hear the Gospel and call it the age of accountability. When does someone move past that age?

Are we trying too hard to put God into a nice little box where heaven and hell are clear? Have we missed something in the gray?

My answers...later.