Questions on Christian Hipsterism: Part II

Hello again, my fellow Christian Hipsters. Thanks everyone who responded to my previous post on this subject. You make me glad when you post comments. Today, I hope to continue this conversation on the important phenomena of Christian Hipsterism -whether you are at Mosaic, Mars Hill, or any other church.

I'm sure everyone already knows that this is not the first wave of "Christian Cool" or however you want to term it. Years ago, in the sixties and the seventies, there were people who also wanted to be hip, follow Jesus, and avoid the established Christian culture. They too, wanted a more authentic version of Christianity that did not simply mirror the culturally conservative, suburban, nuclear family, consumerist, American life-style.

They were called "Jesus People."

Now, they Jesus People have cut their hair. They traded their sandals for dress shoes. They have beat their VW vans into SUVs. They now puchase the veggie-tales videos for their kids. They help run Calvary Chapel. The patronize the Christian book stores. They vote republican. In other words, they became the Christian establishment.

So if the previous generation of edgy, Christian cool, eventually another nominally Christian establishment, what will stop the current trend from becoming the same thing? It does not have to be. The mistakes of the past do not need to be repeated.

There is another important question for a good discussion. I can't put it any words better than Brett McCraken himself. He wonders, have Christian hipsters simply traded one way of conforming to the world for another way of conforming to the world? This is a quote from the end of the Christainity Today Article:

Isn’t Christianity supposed to be distinguishable and set apart from the world? Christian hipsters are rebelling against a mainstream Christianity that they see as too indistinguishable from secular mainstream culture (i.e. consumerist, numbers-driven Fox News-watching, immigrant-hating, SUV-driving), but their corrective may not turn out much better. Some hipster Christianity is as indistinguishable from its secular hipster counterpart as yesterday’s megachurch Christianity was indistinguishable from secular soccer-mom suburbia.

Finally, he puts down an important challenge

The challenge for hipster Christians is to figure out what it means, in their cultural context, to put on a new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24). We are new creations, and the old has passed away (2 Cor 5:17). How does that mesh with the Pabst-guzzling, Parliament smoking nonchalant image that seems important to many hipsters?

So here are two questions everyone can answer in the comments:
1) How might the current trend in millennial Christian hipsterism, avoid the mistakes of the baby boomer Christian hipster-ism of the 60s and 70s? Specifically, how do we not simply turn into the next generation of SUV-driving suberbanites?
2) How can we be certain that we are really fulfilling Eph 4:24 and 2 Cor 5:17? How can be certain we are not simply conforming to the sub-cultural values of wider "hipsterisms"?

Thanks for reading... and for commenting!!

Questions of Christian Hipsterism Part I

Initially I wanted to write a blog about my reactions to the world of Christian Hipsterism. Of course, I have already gone down that bit of self-indulgence in a previous blog. While a blog is always at least a little bit self-indulgent, I’d rather spare my readers more boring stuff about me.

Instead, it would be better if I asked all of you for your thoughts on Christian Hipsterism. Part of being a Christian Hipster means that you were a “Cradle Evangelical,” which I never really was. For those of you who enjoy reading you can check out the Brett McCraken’s article at Christianity Today because it is pretty cool.

The article opens up with a fair description of what a Christian Hipster is. A Christian hipster is someone who was raised Evangelical from youth, desires to continue being a Christian, but wants to disassociate from the culture of Evangelicalism (including “Churchianity” if I may use the Internet Monk’s term). So if you were raised in this culture you are familiar with flannel graph Sunday school lessons, the obsession with left behindist end-times, republican-party Christianity, and people like Falwell, Pat Robertson, and the other crazy uncles of the Billy Graham generation. You were taught well “do not smoke drink or chew, or go with girls/guys who do.”

The Christian hipster either remembers these things as something happily outgrown or denounces them with strong anathemas. Chrisitan Hipsterism can then be defined negatively. By what it is not.

Positively defined, Christian Hipsterism is probably someone meeting at Mosiac West LA –a church I happily sojourned at for two years. A church like this embraces all the good things about the arts and entertainment. It assumes –even expects- that part of Christianity is an interest in creativity. It seeks to encourage Christians and even non Christians to deeply explore their talents and potential in music, dance, writing, visual arts and so on. This is not a crass form of evangelism. The arts are not meant to be advertisements for Jesus, but are rather a natural part of the Christian life.

Another token of Christian Hipsterism is a casual willingness to discuss the sex from the pulpit. Driscoll, (“the angry one”), delivered a podcast on the Song of Solomon. McCracken cited this sermon as token Christian hipsterism. The sermon, “the Dance of Mahanaim,” paints a picture of good sex, in which both the man and the women fulfill certain roles based on their partner’s psychological disposition and biology. I listened to this sermon myself. Even here Driscoll still had to apologize to his audience that the Bible contained sex. Nonetheless, it was an upfront discussion of a normally taboo subject.

A third pillar of Christian Hipsterism is an emphasis on concept of Social Justice. This is quite a nebulous concept, but it reflects a strong theological trend that wants to broaden the notion of the Gospel. The Gospel is not “go to heaven when you die when you accept Jesus.” The Gospel is not are mere acceptance of “salvation by grace alone.” The Gospel contains all these and so much more. The Gospel, as championed by Shane Clairborne, frees slaves, liberates the oppressed, and living a life of simplicity in face of consumerism. If the Kingdom of God is at hand, then the people of God will live according to new kind of life that resists and overturns systematic injustice in the world. Interestingly enough, this has a eschatological component, but that will be addressed another time.

There is also an interest, among the Christian hipsters, of recovering liturgy. This will also be another blog.

So, with no loss of irony, are you a Christian hipster? Are you not quite a Christian hipster? Are you to cool to be called a Christian hipster?

You might want to comment on the blog and re-post it.

The Single Most Los Angeles Thing I Have Ever Done

This saturday, I went and did something that was the most completely "Los Angeles" thing that I have done in my four and half years of living in southern California.

I attended an independent film festival.

The film festival was put on by Mosiac. It was all themed around Erwin's latest book
. I hadn't been to such an event since the festival at my undergraduate, and I loved those too.

This event, took place at "the Mayan," a themed-out downtown club in LA. There was a red carpet. There were people posing behind large frame -a kind of "living artwork"- as per the themes of the festival. There were two guys playing guitar and singing, that way we all knew it was an evangelical thing.

The energy of the place was exciting. I was there with my roommate who is working on the next spider man movie. We got our picture taken on the carpet. I got a nice bottle of "metro water" and drank it without embarrassment. There was popcorn and even Korean Tacos available for purchase. There were a few big wig hollywood people there.

The movies? Well they were all great. My favorite was a short film entitled Marbles with Thoreau. It was simple yet profound. One of those rare movies that is thought provoking in a way that children can understand. It had everything it would need to be a full length film, and it will be.

I left feeling quite happy. It was a great event and I am glad to know my church community there.

I just I hope I haven't turned into a complete Los Angeles native in doing so.

:-)

Beezlethrax the Alien Anthropologist Visits Mosiac West LA

To all members of the Xeno-anthropology institute: I have recently completed some of my research and observations at one of the Oo-man religious temples. Enclosed is a serious of observations followed by my explanatory theories. The temple in question is known in the Oo-man language as “Mosiac: West LA.”

Observations
The Oo-man temple is large and rectangular. The congregation sits in rows common to many other Oo-man temples. The clergy stand on an elevated platform, which serves as the holy space. The lighting is slightly dark. Indeed, the only thing that remains lit is the holy space and its activity.

The most ostentatious symbol in the holy space was a large glowing icon which hung above the holy space. The icon was square in shape, and very large. The icon did not have a consistent image, but was full of constantly shifting images and colors. This included many texts from the oo-man language. It was the only thing which remained consistently lit through the ritual cycle. I will call this icon “the oracle.” I will explain why momentarily. The only other major symbol was member of the clergy creating a new static icon off to the side of the holy space. This included many of the same bright colors of the oracle.

The clergy’s movements were mostly musical. This must be extremely important because the laity was expected to stand and listen reverently. The oracle’s colors shifted with the music. This was the first ritual performed. Later, the laity sat down. The room went dark, and everyone watched the images on the oracle for a few minutes longer. Then the temple was re lit, and the high priest came before the congregation. Unlike many clergy, he wore no special vestments. However, his status seemed conferred by two things: (1)the oracle remained still while he spoke and (2) he held what seemed to be an important book. He gave a speech to the laity, and then all bowed their heads. The temple ritual concluded with the clergy passing buckets, and then they sang again. With this, the laity were dismissed.

Theory
I believe that the large icon is an oracle for several reasons. First, it was the central focus of attention throughout all except the high-priest’s speech. Secondly, when the clergy performed music it shifted most dramatically. Thirdly, there was oo-man text amidst all other images it displayed.

I believe that the clergy invokes the spirit or spirits of the oracle through music. This is supported by the loud, almost over-bearing use thereof. I do not believe Oo-man laity stands out of respect for the clergy perse, but out of respect for the message their deity or deities communicate through the oracle.

Yet, like many Oracles, the message is obscure and difficult to understand. This seems to be the role of the high priest. The oracle became inactive during his speech. I am also reminded that he carried a book, which is perhaps a guideline for priestly interpretation. I believe that the high priest is responsible for interpreting the images of the oracle into a message for the laity. Such a concept of signs/interpretation is already well established within Oo-man religions.

There are many other activities that go beyond my theory. For instance, why does the high priest interact so closely with the laity after the ritual is completed? What is the purpose of the smaller icons that are created during the ritual cycle? Given that the oracle showed so many symbols, which one is the central holy symbol? Such exploration is necessarily beyond the scope of this paper and my project. It will be left to other researchers to uncover.

I will continue my observations at other Oo-man temples in the future.