What Makes Me Proud Of The American Church

There seems to be an increasing polarization in culture between the church and, well, everyone else. A lot of it has to do with politics (and the controversial evangelical alignment with President Trump); a lot has to do with the ubiquity of social media, a platform which Christians have far too often used to shame, mock, attack and spread fake news rather than commit to representing Christ with truth with grace. 

It discourages me. Even worse, I know I contribute to the problem at times. I really, really want a pedestal to stand on, but it crumbled long ago.

I know the gap between those in the church and those outside it is not only widening but deepening, because I have dear friends outside the church who have made this abundantly clear. Even as Christians have gained power as citizens of the United States, we have lost gospel influence as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. What does it profit the Church to gain D.C. or get movies in theaters or have professional athletes pray if the light from the 'city on a hill' no longer pierces the darkness with honor, truth and grace?

I can beat the drum of "judgment begins in the house of God" all day. 

In the midst of my ecclesiastical gloom and doom, a good friend challenged me last week to rethink my pessimism. Is my ever-present negativity doing justice to the reality of the 'boots on the ground" experience of the Christians I know? Well, not really. And is it doing justice to the Big Picture of the Christian presence in culture?

So I started doing some research.

Some Answers For 'Questions Christians Have For Other Christians'

I suspect there will be plenty of posts responding to the latest Buzzfeed project from Christians who are challenging other Christians to step up their game. "I'm Christian But I'm Not…" certainly sparked a lot of conversation; "Questions Christians Have For Other Christians" looks to do the same. I'd hate to see these questions be reduced to rhetorical status, so... let's do this!

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“Do you really think [Jesus is] freaking out because his name isn’t on a cup that you get to hold for ten minutes while you drink a pumpkin spice latte?”

Nope. If I had to guess (and I don’t have to, but I want to), maybe 10% of Christians initially thought this mattered, and 5% of them got talked out of it by the 90% of Christians who rolled their eyes when they saw the story cross their news feed. If this incident hadn't fit neatly into an increasingly popular cultural narrative wherein all Christians look crazy like Josh Feuerstein, this would have been a non-story.

 “Why does Christian music always sound like a mixture of Nickelback and Third Eye Blind?”

For the same reason so much non-Christian music does – it sells. And though there is definitely a lot of derivative and uninspiring music put out by Christians, there’s also needtobreathe, Switchfoot, Andy Mineo, NF, Steve Taylor, Josh Garrells, Fireflight, Flyleaf, Rend Collective, All Sons and Daughters, For King and Country, Kirk Franklin, Lecrae, August Burns Red,The Devil Wears Prada, TFK, Jonny Lang...

“Do devotions actually happen if you didn’t post about it on Instagram?”

Of course, but point taken.

Christians and Halloween

As a child, I was raised in a Mennonite community that did not observe Halloween. From its roots to its current form, we saw nothing compelling or good about it. We gave treats to oddly arrayed children on our doorstep, but we never dressed up, never went out, and did our best not to support the holiday financially or emotionally. I didn't really care; my mom didn't let us kids eat much candy anyway.

As a young adult, I learned more about the holiday from people who had done more than dabble in the occult. Whatever you might think of the legitimacy of their attempts to connect with the dark side, they were pretty serious about what they hoped to accomplish. Halloween was their Christmas and Easter rolled into one. They approached it with a sense of mission and purpose.

I later moved out of that community and for the first time came in contact with a lot of sincere Christians who viewed Halloween as just another holiday. They experienced it as an exercise of imagination, a sort of exorcism of the spirits of fear from which we Christians have been freed. God had not redeemed us so that we would cringe in the face of evil, so they boldly subverted Halloween with a freedom foreign to my upbringing.

These very different experiences have given me plenty to ponder over the years. Though I have more to understand, I have several observations that I hope contain wisdom.