Comments on: ‘The Last Station’ and the Gospel of Fluff http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/the-last-station-and-the-gospel-of-fluff/ Where The Christian Faith Meets Football Season Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:07:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: When It Comes to Knowing God, You Need a Balloon and a String « filling my patch of sky http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/the-last-station-and-the-gospel-of-fluff/#comment-76890 When It Comes to Knowing God, You Need a Balloon and a String « filling my patch of sky Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:59:05 +0000 http://www.christandpopculture.com/?p=6135#comment-76890 [...] Smith supports this notion in her post over at Christ and Pop Culture: We’ve all probably heard or read something similar: it was along [...] [...] Smith supports this notion in her post over at Christ and Pop Culture: We’ve all probably heard or read something similar: it was along [...]

]]> By: Charles http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/the-last-station-and-the-gospel-of-fluff/#comment-73761 Charles Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:11:28 +0000 http://www.christandpopculture.com/?p=6135#comment-73761 It seems like any word that's been used in it's traditional capacity for more than 10 years is becoming a bad word, so that the writer or speaker can rescue us from it's tyranny with the new, freeing terminology. I had a text for class a few weeks ago that actually turned the word "teacher" into a pejorative. Apparently the major problem with colleges is that professors are "teachers" when they need to be "designers of learning experiences". The book turned out to be really good, but that whole section drove me crazy. People with platforms to speak from should be much more careful with their wording, and stop turning helpful terms into bad words, but I like to cut the guys at the bottom some slack. You know that these preachers all have some vocal portion of their congregation banging the Relevance drum behind them, or they feel like their scaring people away, or some other insecurity is eating at them. It's hard to defend orthodoxy when you're unsure of yourself. What we need more than preachers who are shrewd observers ready to defend traditional things is preachers who get their confidence from God, so that when these issues pop up they can buck the trend and speak the truth - which can be as simple as false vs. true religion, instead of religion vs. some other thing. It seems like any word that’s been used in it’s traditional capacity for more than 10 years is becoming a bad word, so that the writer or speaker can rescue us from it’s tyranny with the new, freeing terminology. I had a text for class a few weeks ago that actually turned the word “teacher” into a pejorative. Apparently the major problem with colleges is that professors are “teachers” when they need to be “designers of learning experiences”. The book turned out to be really good, but that whole section drove me crazy.

People with platforms to speak from should be much more careful with their wording, and stop turning helpful terms into bad words, but I like to cut the guys at the bottom some slack. You know that these preachers all have some vocal portion of their congregation banging the Relevance drum behind them, or they feel like their scaring people away, or some other insecurity is eating at them. It’s hard to defend orthodoxy when you’re unsure of yourself. What we need more than preachers who are shrewd observers ready to defend traditional things is preachers who get their confidence from God, so that when these issues pop up they can buck the trend and speak the truth – which can be as simple as false vs. true religion, instead of religion vs. some other thing.

]]> By: Katharine http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/the-last-station-and-the-gospel-of-fluff/#comment-73745 Katharine Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:39:33 +0000 http://www.christandpopculture.com/?p=6135#comment-73745 From time to time, we hear about surveys and studies that supposedly show Americans (particularly young Americans) today are less "religious" and more "spiritual" than at previous times in our history. I find such surveys to be inherently flawed (at least inasmuch as their interpreters claim they represent a rejection of organized religion, a rejection of orthodox Christianity, an embrace of "New Age" beliefs, or, really, anything else) because, as you point out, evangelicals themselves have been "religion-bashing" for some time now. How do we know if the survey respondent who says, "I'm not religious; I'm spiritual" is really saying, "I don't think it matters what you believe as long as you believe something," "I'm born again and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, so I don't follow a religion of works-righteousness anymore," "I'm a disillusioned ex-Catholic/ex-Lutheran/ex-Episcopalian and don't go to church anymore," "I enjoy meditation and yoga," or something entirely different? "Religion," unfortunately, has become a bad word, at least for the time being, and I wonder if we are better off putting it aside for now (as much as I, like Carissa, would like to defend it), and instead delving deeper into the question of what we mean by relationship, what a relationship with Jesus looks like (i.e., it clearly means being in relationship with His other followers), and whether relationships do need to have rules. - KPE From time to time, we hear about surveys and studies that supposedly show Americans (particularly young Americans) today are less “religious” and more “spiritual” than at previous times in our history. I find such surveys to be inherently flawed (at least inasmuch as their interpreters claim they represent a rejection of organized religion, a rejection of orthodox Christianity, an embrace of “New Age” beliefs, or, really, anything else) because, as you point out, evangelicals themselves have been “religion-bashing” for some time now. How do we know if the survey respondent who says, “I’m not religious; I’m spiritual” is really saying, “I don’t think it matters what you believe as long as you believe something,” “I’m born again and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, so I don’t follow a religion of works-righteousness anymore,” “I’m a disillusioned ex-Catholic/ex-Lutheran/ex-Episcopalian and don’t go to church anymore,” “I enjoy meditation and yoga,” or something entirely different? “Religion,” unfortunately, has become a bad word, at least for the time being, and I wonder if we are better off putting it aside for now (as much as I, like Carissa, would like to defend it), and instead delving deeper into the question of what we mean by relationship, what a relationship with Jesus looks like (i.e., it clearly means being in relationship with His other followers), and whether relationships do need to have rules.

- KPE

]]> By: André http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/the-last-station-and-the-gospel-of-fluff/#comment-73740 André Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:29:27 +0000 http://www.christandpopculture.com/?p=6135#comment-73740 I haven't watched the movie, but this was a great read anyway! I haven’t watched the movie, but this was a great read anyway!

]]>