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Cool Christianity

I recently read an article titled “Meet the Woke Young People Trying to Make Christianity Cool Again.” (I’m a bit confused by the “woke” in there, but whatever.) The article bemoaned the gap between public opinion and the opinions of evangelical Christians. To quote: “It doesn’t help that Christian communities can be out of step with the rest of the country when it comes to certain issues.” This assumes that being cool is a good thing.

Furthermore, the authors insist that Christians are the ones who need to change. In other words, we need to bring the ignorant, regressive Christians into line with the majority of Americans. In our efforts to be cool, we should embrace the world’s values. That would make Christianity “cool.” Continue reading →

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In Praise of Cluelessness

I am somewhat “culturally challenged”—or, as my kids might put it, totally clueless—and it’s my own fault.

The problem, if you want to call it that, is that I have disengaged from much of popular culture. I don’t watch much TV. I don’t see many movies. We ended our newspaper delivery after the paper shrank to a few pages of information I can easily find online. The only magazine I get now is “Outdoor Photographer,” although I used to subscribe to a couple more. Ever since a generous friend gave me an iPod, I have listened to that instead of the radio. I stay current with the topics I choose—enough politics to vote intelligently, national and international headlines, local happenings, environmental issues, the state of the Church—through my iGoogle page… and I don’t have to read anything I don’t want to.

Continue reading →