In But Not Of

With the spring semester starting this week, I probably won't finish this book for a while. That being the case, I want to share something from Kenneth A. Myers', All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians & Popular Culture—a horrifically bad title for an outstandingly great book—before I forget. By the time I finish the book, the current passage I'm mulling over will have been replaced by countless others, I'm sure.

First of all, a word about the book in general. It was written in 1989 so, lots of the "popular culture" Myers addresses is not so popular anymore. But so far, none of his now-outdated references have negated any of his principles. You can take out references to VCRs, cable boxes and Bon Jovi and replace them with DVD players, Wi-Fi and Justin Timberlake and the message hits home just as effectively. In sum, Myers warns us against completely removing ourselves from culture—which would be not in and not of—and against mimicking our culture by keeping all of its forms but replacing the secular content with Christian content—which would be of but not in. He proposes that we live in such a way that we influence our culture towards consistency with what God intended for it in the beginning. Christians, being Spirit-filled, live sanctified lives that can affect and influence the unsanctified culture in which we live. This is how to truly be in and not of. The rest of the book is a discussion of how we got the popular culture we have, how to assess it and how to go about influencing it for the better.

The passage that struck me today is about properly evaluating various pop culture products (songs, books, films, etc.) and determining which, if any, are acceptable for us to consume. Being the kind of person who often wonders whether or not I'm consuming too much, the chapter seemed directed right at me. I was relieved and encouraged to hear Myers express these concluding thoughts, not just because they leave a place for the intake and enjoyment of popular culture but because they correctly reflect my take on the Bible's instructions to us about culture. I think they should serve as a challenge to every citizen of the Kingdom of God as we enjoy the world into which God has placed us and, at the same time, try to influence it to be as reflective of its original intent as it can be this side or our Lord's return.

"Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial or constructive, says Paul in I Corinthians 10. Eating meat offered to idols is no problem for the Christian as long as the Christian doesn't believe that the idols have any spiritual reality. As long as the Corinthian believers were not caught up in the Zeitgeist of Corinth, as long as the sensibility of the culture did not dominate their own sensibilities, they could participate in the intrinsically innocent activities their culture afforded. But if someone was gripped by the culture's own myths, even the meat was tainted."

"The same holds true in our day. There is nothing wrong with frivolous activity for one whose life is not committed to frivolity. There is no harm in superficial pleasures for one who also has a knowledge of the tragic and of the transcendent. The subjectivism of popular culture is impotent for someone whose life is characterized by a rootedness in objective reality."

"Christians should not fear the idols and myths of our day, as long as they have no reverence for them. But idols and myths can take the form of moods and sensibilities as well as stone and creed, and there are many disturbing signs that many contemporary Christians have made the limited and limiting sensibility of popular culture their own."

Thanks, Uncle Sam

Read the following song lyrics:

CHICKEN!
pay the chicken back back, pay the chicken back,
pay back the chicken back, do the chicken payback.

PIGGY!
pay the piggy back back, pay the piggy back,
pay back the piggy back, do the piggy payback.

MONKEY!
pay the monkey back back, pay the monkey back,
see the monkey, do the monkey, pay the monkey back.

CHICKEN!
pay the chicken back back, pay the chicken back,
pay back the chicken back, back, do the chicken payback.

CAMEL!
pay the camel back, sittin' on the camel back,
see the camel, do the camel, pay the camel back.

DONKEY!
pay the donkey back, back, pay the donkey back,
pay back the donkey, pay back, pay back the donkey.

all the animals together, break it down, let me hear ya …

CHICKEN!
pay the chicken back back, pay the chicken back back,
do the chicken payback, pay back the chicken.

PIGGY!
pay the piggy back back, pay the piggy back
see the piggy, do the piggy, pay the piggy back.

MONKEY!
pay the monkey back back, pay the monkey back,
pay back the monkey, pay back, pay back the monkey.

CHICKEN!
pay the chicken back back, pay the chicken back,
pay back the chicken back, do the chicken payback.

CAMEL!
pay the camel back back, pay the camel back,
pay back the camel, pay back, pay back the camel.

DONKEY!
pay the donkey back back, pay the donkey back,
pay back the donkey, pay back, pay back the donkey, pay back.

PAY THEM ALL BACK!
pay back the donkey
PAY THEM ALL BACK!
pay back the piggy
PAY THEM ALL BACK!
pay back the monkey
PAY THEM ALL BACK!
pay back the chicken
PAY THEM ALL BACK!

Do you find it hard to imagine why in the world I've posted these? You won't, if you go here and then imagine how much fun it is to jump around the kitchen with my 16-month old to this catchy number, while he laughs and screams contagiously. Every time we play this song, I'm amazed at how such meaningless, almost idiotic lyrics can bring such happiness to our little threesome. Way to go, Band of Bees, way to go!

But really, thanks goes to Dietrich's uncle, Sam, who put the song on a mix CD in celebration of the little one's life. Sam has been great about keeping us up-to-date musically through periodic mix CDs. Were it not for Sam, I would be in the dark about Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, all bands that I can't imagine not listening to. Being in Ukraine, we miss out on a lot of American culture, but with Sam's help we're staying somewhat in touch musically. Keep it up, Sam, it's greatly appreciated.

Truth in the Least Likely of Places

Here in Ukraine, only the Catholics and the Evangelicals — who together make up a very small percentage of the Christian community — celebrate Christmas on December 25th. Instead, Ukrainians do their gift giving on January 1st and celebrate Christ's birth according to the Orthodox calendar, which is January 7th. All of this means that things are busy right up to, and even after December 25th, making it hard to slow down and focus on the spiritual Center of the coming holiday. So, this year, we decided to move our sleeping in, special breakfast and gift giving to January 1st. Rather than feeling like New Year's Day, today feels like Christmas morning.

In that spirit, I tracked down the song, Spotlight on Christmas by Rufus Wainwright that a friend of ours had mentioned in an email. And it turns out that I actually love it, despite my best intentions to avoid being sucked in by catchy pop music that lacks creativity and does not involve much talent. I'm not making a blanket judgment on Rufus Wainwright, not knowing him or his music very well. It just seems, from this song and the few others that I've heard, that he creates catchy pop music that lacks creativity and does not involve much talent.

The main reason that I love it, however, has little to do with the music but a lot to do with the second verse. It goes like this:

People love and people hate
People go and people wait
But, don't forget Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Once were a family poor but rich in hope, yeah
Don't forget Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Running from the law, King Herod hath imposed
And they were each one quite odd
And mensch, a virgin, and a God
But don't forget that what kept them afloat
Floating through the desert doesn't take a boat, no
Don't forget that what kept them above
Is unconditional love

Yes, the line about the boat in the desert is cheesy and yes, he may not believe what he sings about Jesus, Mary and Joseph but, at the end of the day, finding Christian truth proclaimed unexpectedly in a pop song kinda gets me going. Nothing beats Linus reading Jesus' birth narrative from the Gospel of Luke in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But with our VCR broken this "Christmas," I'll thank Rufus Wainwright for bring the Gospel to me through pop culture.