Holy Living No Longer Requires Self-denial

September 17, 2003

Holy Living No Longer Requires Self-denial

This article is written by Walter Kirn, GQ’s literary editor. Here’s the opening paragraph for his article:

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? BUT MORE, IMPORTANT, WHAT WERE JESUS’ FINTNESS SECRETS? IF YOU WERE ONE OF THE GROWING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS LIVING IN THE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CHRISTIAN ALTERNACULTURE�IN WHICH EVERYTHING IN MAINSTREAM CULTURE GETS CLONED AND THEN BLEACHED OF “SINFUL” CONTENT�YOU’D KNOW. WALTER KIRN SPENDS SEVEN STRANGE DAYS WALKING IN THE SHOES OF THE FAITHFUL.

Some quotes:
Today I will plug in my TVGuardian, a handy electronic chaperone whose “patent pending, award winning technology” filters out “95% to 100% of foul language from TV shows” and replaces objectionable phrases like She’s such a #%&#h! and Oh &#!t! with She’s such a nag! and Oh crud!

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These new Christian bands rock like Americans play soccer: skillfully but somehow not convincingly. …For me, though, [it] confirmed a preconception that Christian rock is a cultural oxymorona calculated, systematic rip-off, not a genuine surge of inspired energy.

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What I don’t understand about these Left Behind books is how there can be so f—ing many of them, given that their subject is Armageddon. How long can a writer drag out the Second Coming? Even a trilogy would be a stretch, but ten novels going on eleven, all huge sellers, with no final volume in sight? I smell a con.

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On the way, I tune in to Christian radio, and the moment I hit the right frequency, I know it. There’s a curious hush in the announcers’ voices, as though they’re broadcasting from a library, and though the top-of-the-hour news report is heralded by a dramatic burst of music not unlike those used on secular networks, the stories that immediately follow deal with abortion and pornography instead of politicians and celebrities.

Full Article

I think this writer is on to something. As Christians, we’ve created this weird psuedo-secular version of the world that somehow we think is the right way to live. What do you think?

Posted by pablohart on September 17, 2003 06:17 PM

Comments

I think I would have to agree. I have been thinking lately about how Christians are supposed to be different, to stand out, to make a difference in the world around us. And yet, in the U.S. (and most likely elsewhere), we have simply whitewashed the ways of the world and called them our own.

I see very few people who live the way God calls us to live. Anyone who tries to say we should live differently immediately gets lambasted with cries of "God wants us to be happy." "He has given us all things to enjoy." I myself have been guilty at times of having my conscience pricked when someone challenges my life and responded in defense.

I don't think it is wrong to be content, even to enjoy life as we live it. The problem is that our modern day Christian lives have become less and less a dynamic and powerful reflection of the living God inside of us and more and more a group of people who seek after the purposes of the world and just give them a Christian term. Prosperity, blessing, happiness, fellowship. These are all terms that can be appropriate in the right context and yet we simply use them to justify our lack of effort.

I know I should not generalize but that is what I see for the most part in the church today. I must also admit that is how I live my life most of the time.

The Bible talks repeatedly about the trouble that will come to us as we live and hold ourselves and others to the standards that he desires for us. When you live the way God calls you to it makes other people very uncomfortable, even other Christians. And yet, the whole purpose of most people today is to live the "American Dream". To be comfortable. Have the house, car and boat.

If we lived today as the apostles and the early church did then we as Christians should stand out much more than we do.

A lot of people say, "Don't judge, you don't know what is going on in their heart." That is true, but as Paul said, show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works. Our lives, our actions, our thoughts and our purposes should be consumed by our love for God and others. Not a passing thought once a week when we hear a sermon. For a country that has so much we way too often say "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet don't actually offer anything other than words.

Ok, I guess I went on a bit of a tirade there but that's the way I see things. For every sermon out there that challenges us to change we hear a hundred telling us to stay the same. That it's "okay, God loves us as we are." True, but if He loves us as much as He says he does our whole lives should be thrown, with complete abandon, towards pleasing him.

I speak this as much to myself as to anyone else. I know there are people out there who surpass what I have generalized here and I greatly admire them. However, there are many more people who live just they way I have described and it is time we change.

It is a scary thing to see yourself as you truly are and yet it is necessary if you are ever to live a life that is above average. It is so easy to live an average life, that's why it's average. Yet, we should strive for so much more than that.

I hope this comes as a challenge and encourages someone else to at least evaluate if we are living at the level that we can.

Thanks.

Posted by Daniel Piatt at January 8, 2004 1:33 PM

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Holy Living No Longer Requires Self-denial