Cosmopolitan Magazine and Church have more in common than you think.Cosmo is full of articles and features which give you the technique of sex. Why all this focus on mechanics? Well because the mystery has been removed. When we show sex for all it's glory on every TV channel, everywhere, and for everyone, you remove the mystery of sex. You remove the potential, the unknown, the forbidden. All you're left with is mechanics and technique. That is why all of Cosmo's sex articles are things such as "Ten best ways to...", "The top 5 positions to...", "What your man really likes..." etc.
Sometimes I feel like Modern Christianity is becoming one big Cosmo magazine. We've taken the Mystery out of Christianity. The Mystery of course is that Christ is in us (Rom 16:25-27; Eph 3:5-8; 6:19; Col 1:26). That means the same life-changing, hope-giving, problem-solving power of Jesus Christ is alive, functional, and accessible in every new testament believer because of the Holy Spirit.
So take this very mystery out of Christianity and all you're left with is... you guessed it... mechanics and technique. This of course is why the bestseller lists are filled with books on self-help, "10 steps out of...", and the like. Should I even mention Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Paula White, and others? Our top selling Christian Living books could all be articles on the cover of Cosmo with a simple word change.
4 comments:
Nice work on the Osteen cover...hey, what about "7 Steps to LOVING at Your Full Potential!"
I actually had it done but the colors weren't working out so I said forget it. Plus I didn't want to take ALL the creativity. I had to leave something for the rest of you guys.
One of the reasons many Evangelicals are going Eastern Orthodox is just what you've touched on: we have starved our parishoners for mystery. Most of our worship services are concerts with a lecture. We despise the sacrament. There's nothing transcendent there.
But we're creatures of mystery ourselves, serving a God Who is Three yet One, named after our Lord Who has two natures in one Person, Who determines all our steps and yet we are responsible to Him. All mysteries.
But like good modernists, we want to bottom-line everything.
I think we are terrified of mystery. There are discussions in my church about Rob Bell being a heretic because of his methodology. It freaks people out that someone could embrace and even enjoy the mysterious parts of our faith.
In the church culture I've been a part of, the answers "I don't know" or "the Bible doesn't spell it out in black and white" are tantamount to claiming Scripture isn't sufficient. Maybe it's time we realized that evanglicals don't and can't know it all. That would be God's department.
Post a Comment