Which do I love more, Christ or mocking the evangelical sub-culture? I was steeped in the evangelical sub-culture at birth. I was also raised to be a critical thinker. These two things in combination mean that I am adept at picking apart the Christian sub-culture. So much so that sometimes I have to stop myself and ask: Which do I love more?
Part of adolescence is the attempt to separate one's identity from that of your family. The evangelical kid might try to learn more about the larger culture outside of the church. Depending on how fundamentalist your church is, this could lead to a variety of interpretations and responses. My youth pastor kept trying to get me to listen to Christian rock and I kept telling him that it was lousy music. I didn't believe this made me less of a Christian; it just mean I had a more discriminating musical taste.
When I was growing up there was a large-scale attempt to create a culture-within-a-culture for the Christian. We had Christian alternatives to almost everything "the world" had to offer (this is still largely the case). If you named a secular band, there was a Christian band that offered an almost identical sound. Christian books, Christian board games, Christian alternatives to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. My family felt that this sort of alternate culture was unnecessary and unscriptural. My parents hadn't been allowed to go to movies, play cards, or listen to rock and roll when they were growing up. They felt that, instead of trying unsuccessfully to isolate their children, they would be better off trying to educate us to live in the culture, but not to be "of" that culture. So I learned that most of these culture-within-a-culture attempts are misguided, and usually pretty silly.
As a result, I became skillful in mocking these aspects of the Christian sub-culture. In most cases they are quite comical and it's not difficult to find things to ridicule. It was done in fun; a sort of teasing from the initiated. But sometimes I get carried away.
The Pharisees were also very skillful at creating a culture-within-a-culture. They created "hedges" around the religious law. They set the boundaries really far out so that they wouldn't come within miles of breaking a law. They were honored by their peers for their holiness. But Jesus saw the whole attempt as a bit ridiculous. Humans sin. We break God's law all the time. There's something a bit self-righteous about trying to add on to God's law in an effort to prove ourselves more holy.
It is all too easy to poke fun at the Christian sub-culture. I think I do it because it makes me feel separate (or better) from the "Pharisees" of the church. This makes me a Pharisee of the Pharisees in my own self-righteous smugness. Do I mock these things because I love Christ or because it makes me feel better?
Sometimes I get angry about things that are happening in the evangelical sub-culture. I think we look ridiculous to the outside world. In a non-Christian were to describe what they think of the typical American evangelical, I think they would say: they hate gay people; they hate abortion and the people who have them; they are self-righteous hypocrites; and they are white, middle-class Republicans. We are known for what we don't do and what we condemn. This makes me incredibly sad. I wish we were known for the positive things we do that make us the hands and feet of Christ. I want the non-Christian to say: those people are so committed to life that they adopt unwanted children, they fight poverty and its causes, they care for those who have been decimated by AIDS, they are stewards of nature, they offer forgiveness and grace to those stuck in sin.
I catch myself because I am part of the problem. I would rather mock the latest fad in the church. I would rather point out our irrelevance--and this is what makes me a Pharisee. I'm not going to campaign for the government to legislate my morality. I think it's good and important for Christians to be involved in politics, but I want to start by making changes in my community. I don't want to feel like I need to apologize for being a Christian anymore. Christ doesn't need me to defend him. He needs me to represent him.
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