Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Subcultural

A few weeks ago, at a pastor's meeting, we discussed the notion of "cul-de-sac" groups - specifically boards or committees and congregations. The cul-de-sac was a concept developed to impress upon people the idea of safety, security, and privacy (which never really materialized, to be honest). He had a great quote: "a committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled."

It is human nature to insulate ourselves. We want a predictable, familiar community of people - and when we find it, we want it to remain the same forever. Too often we've built these insular communities and called them "churches," when that couldn't be farther from the original design. Intimate, connected, familial - for sure - but closed and private, certainly not. The whole purpose of the Church is to live out a specific lifestyle in the midst of the public square, to be an example of an alternative way of life.

This brought to mind a distinction I ran across months ago (so long ago I've now forgotten who to properly credit) that Christians, especially American evangelicals, intend to be counter-cultural, but have actually constructed a subculture, separate and distinct from the culture at large. This is the distinction between living differently in the world and living in a different world altogether.

Conservative Christians in the US - what's become commonly known as "the evangelicals" - have created their own little world and, instead of engaging culture, reject it and recreate it separately, expecting people to take notice. What's worse: so much of this subculture has very little to do with Christianity; it's largely a generic moralism that's vaguely related to carefully curated scripture passages - often entirely devoid of context.

In a subculture, your primary concern is checking the right behavioral boxes to live in a way that will qualify you for the subculture. The colloquial expression growing up was "don't drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls who do." It was an out-of-touch joke even then, but it betrays a reality. It's not even that a distinctive set of practices (either done or avoided) is a bad thing - a common rule of life is a community-defining practice and often vitally important, even for a counter-cultural presence. The problem really arises when you start to look at "why" those things are done (or not done). If it's simply to bodily identify with a specific group or to check off the boxes for heaven, you're in real trouble. If it's to embody a different set of principles, foundational assumptions for life, then it makes a lot more sense.

One of the real benefits, though, of American evangelicalism becoming and ever more exclusive subculture is that it has less and less presence in the real world. Not having been in a traditional ministry setting the last few years has woken me up to the fact that most everyone, even many people very involved in Christian ministry, just have no clue this evangelical subculture even exists. I hear pastor friends lamenting some preacher/author/conference that's embarrassing themselves and Christ and I gladly don't know what they're talking about.

As a subculture prefects its isolation, it disappears. The only time evangelical leaders pop up in mainstream culture is when they're saying ridiculous, usually deplorable things. It's a strange novelty - a bit more offensive than the Amish or a hippy commune, but equally as irrelevant in everyday life. I suspect (and hope) that by the time my daughter's grown up, the average American will know as much about Franklin Graham as they do about snakehandlers.

True counter-culture makes it's present felt simply by existing. Subcultures fade from consciousness as they reach their goals. Counter-culture is generally painful for the mainstream, but largely by asking difficult questions about relevant issues. Subcultures are annoying to the mainstream, because they feign relevancy by making a scene (almost literally the original definition of geek).

The gospel of Jesus Christ is wildly relevant to this (and every other) time and place. It is a counter-cultural message of suffering, unconditional love. It does not always provide the safety, security, or privacy of a cul-de-sac - but those very well may be illusions anyway.
There is no question of whether Christianity will survive the current upheaval of culture and human understanding, but whether the organizations and institutions we now associate with Christianity survive the change is entirely dependent on them rejecting the human desire for subculture and embracing a truly revolutionary counter-cultural presence.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Back in the Groove

You may have noticed (or completely not noticed) a dearth of material on the ol' blog in recent weeks. As you may know, I write for www.d3hoops.com from November to March, which means a pretty lengthy basketball piece once a week, as well as other responsibilities. That, coupled with some other additions to my schedule made writing tough.
I managed to get one post a week out most weeks; it's only been in the last month or two, where things have slowed to a trickle, if at all.

There have been dry spells before and my schedule certainly doesn't lend itself to writing space right now. I tend to like solitude and a good chunk of time, even if I don't use it or even don't plan to use it all. I don't write well if I don't think I'll have enough time to do it.
In all honesty, though, that's probably an excuse. I graduated college 4th in my class and did almost everything at the last minute all four years and was consistently praised for my writing.

I'm guessing the bigger deal is passion. I still have a lot of things to say, but I think the season of my life where they come out in brief (or not so brief) little spurts may be over - at least for now. Typically, when I'd get passionate about something (either positively or negatively) I'd start a post. Sometimes I'd finish it; other times I'd leave it to finish later, but I usually had a wealth of material. In fact, I do still have a few unfinished bits lying around in the queue, waiting for inspiration to strike.

I've been a little less emotional lately, though. I gave up on being outraged at Trump in the fall. I wrote one last sarcastic tweet about how he's the kind of guy who needs to be ignored rather than challenged and I have felt perfectly fine following that advice since. I'll still comment on a issue or a topic here or there (I've been saying all along this meeting with North Korea will never happen and has been a sham since the beginning), but I think I pushed through the wall of expecting anything out of government. I've been saying (and writing here) for a long time that Christians need to be an alternative way of life and not get so caught up in the machinations of empires and elections - perhaps this is just my next evolution of trying to embody that idea.

I read the Jim Comey book last week. It was excellent.
I thought about writing a review* - and may still do it - but that kind of writing just doesn't have the same interest to me in this season of life. I had been trying to keep up the two post a week pace mostly out of pride. I wanted to prove I could do it - stick with something that's so hard for so many others (especially when I don't make any money doing it). In the end, I had to decide that life was a little more important than my ego.

I do still want to write for the discipline. I'm hoping to spend the next few months working on a book proposal - I feel a real calling at this point to explore a longer, more organized collection of my thoughts on theology, Christianity, and life; and I want to make a real effort at it - but I also aim to keep up a once a week blog pace. I think writing a short piece (without much editing) once a week is entirely doable and will accomplish all of my goals without stretching me too thin. I don't know if the tone or tenner will change much - and I'm publicly committing to this at the beginning of a summer where I'll be on the road and away from home for six weeks or more (check out Fastest48 and our website), but I'm going to try.



And, yes, I recognize this both counts as a post and a cop out, since I wrote about posting, but it'll have to do for now - my wife is a stressed out librarian at the end of the school year and she needs my help.





*I still love history and it's amazing how much of recent US history this guy was right in the middle of. The book is entirely without political bent or comment - he does tend to praise Obama and critique Trump, but it's more about how they build relationships and make decisions; it's very much a leadership book. While I suspect Comey glosses over his own faults a little too carefully, it's humble, straightforward, and well-written. The year isn't half over yet, but it's the best book I've read so far.