A recent article in the NYT focused on the fear of many Evangelicals that they are "loosing" their youth to our wicked secular culture. They highlighted an Evangelical "tour" for teenagers called "Acquire The Fire." Basically, it's a "stadium extravaganza" for Evangelical Christian youth that features a lot of the same trappings of regular rock concerts but without any of the secular perversity of the latter.
At some point in the two-day show, the hip and charismatic host dude has all the kids write down "negative cultural influences" on a piece of paper and come to the front of the stage and throw the pieces of paper into a trash can:
Trash cans filled with folded pieces of paper on which the teenagers had scribbled things like Ryan Seacrest, Louis Vuitton, “Gilmore Girls,” “Days of Our Lives,” Iron Maiden, Harry Potter, “need for a boyfriend” and “my perfect teeth obsession.” One had written in tiny letters: “fornication.”
Some teenagers threw away cigarette lighters, brand-name sweatshirts, Mardi Gras beads and CD’s — one titled “I’m a Hustla.”
“I strip off the identity of the world, and this morning I clothe myself with Christ, with his lifestyle. That’s what I want to be known for.”
Aside from the fact that the term "lifestyle" was not around during the time of the alleged Jesus, how is having ersatz "progressive" rock bands and selling "cool" Christian t-shirts a rejection of secular culture? It kinda seems like cheating to me. If these kids are supposed to have the "lifestyle" of Jesus, wouldn't they have to walk around in woolen robes and leather sandals? Wouldn't they be hangin with, and giving comfort to, the AIDS-infected crackheads down in the hood?
And then there was a comment by one Rev. David W. Key, the director of Baptist Studies at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, here in Atlanta:
"Today the culture trivializes religion and normalizes secularism and liberal sexual mores."
Just what does he mean by "the culture?" Isn't that kind of broad? And why couldn't secularism be "normal" anyway. In fact, the first definition for the word secular is "...of or relating to the worldly." That sounds pretty normal to me. I mean, how "normal" is it to rise from the dead and float up to some yet-to-be-proven place known as "heaven?"
Then there was this statement from a researcher that kinda took me by surprise:
“I met plenty of kids who told me over and over that if you’re not Christian in your high school, you’re not cool — kids with Mohawks, with indie rock bands who feel peer pressure to be Christian.”
Do any of you Cellarites' kids go to a school like that?
