You may have seen Brett McCracken’s excellent editorial in the Wall Street Journal recently, “The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity.” McCracken is the author of Hipster Christianity, a surprisingly controversial new book we’ve referenced on here before. So many folks have forwarded the article to me that I’m not sure whether to be flattered or concerned…! He writes:
“Increasingly, the [evangelical church’s] “plan” has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called “the emerging church”—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too “let’s rethink everything” radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity’s image and make it “cool”—remains.
There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated “No Country For Old Men.” For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub.
“Wannabe cool” Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an “iCampus.” Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services.
But one of the most popular—and arguably most unseemly—methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking. What better way to appeal to younger generations than to push the envelope and go where no fundamentalist has gone before?…
If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.
If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.
Let me underline what McCracken is saying here: Cool for cool’s sake is a non-starter, especially Christianly-speaking. We’re not just talking about how the time-tested rules of high school apply in equal measure to believers and non-believers – which they do, namely, that any attempt to be cool is, by its very nature, the opposite of cool. Translating religious language is one thing; dressing something up as something that it’s not in order to dupe people into coming to church is another. Particularly when the new dress makes it less appealing, which it almost always does.
The Gospel will never be cool because the Gospel is for the uncool. The lame, the strange, the nerds, yes, even folks with bad taste. It’s for people who try too hard and fail. For those who say they don’t care but actually do, deeply. But that’s probably giving these categories way too much credence – ‘coolness’ is not only a construct, but a dangerously Pharisaical one. The law of Cool has crushed more than a few, many of us included. Brooklyn is not a happy place.
Is Mockingbird cool? Is it hip? I don’t think that’s for me/us to say. It certainly isn’t a big concern. The Gospel is no more or less relevant than it ever has been, and even if we wanted to, we couldn’t change that. Thank God! This doesn’t mean we don’t have plenty of opinions (too many) about the relative quality of art, music, movies, etc. Lord knows we do. But please, if you ever catch us trying to be cool, or consciously engaging in the bait and switch – you have our permission to stop reading.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=csHptb8APlo&w=600]
P.S. The August playlist I’m working on is the coolest yet!
COMMENTS
15 responses to “The Church of Cool”
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From the article:
My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.
In my experience, people lose interest in Christianity because the narrative presented in most churches touches their lives with no more relevance than the narratives presented in Star Trek or The Lord of the Rings. Christianity often seems to be an extremely intricate but ultimately self-contained universe that may or may not have anything to do with life as we live it.
I think the reason why people respond to movies like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist so powerfully is because they want to see something supernatural in the natural world. I don't have much interest in someone's personal conviction that a song on the radio was God speaking to them. I want to see Linda Blair's head spin completely around.
Otherwise there's just a complicated system of ideas that may hang together but does not necessarily touch reality in any way.
Yes, and that's too bad. I think it stems from the idea that "salvation" is something completely otherworldly and has nothing to do with the human condition or soul.
It really is a shame, because to me it's clear that we're speaking, in Christ, about a God who knows what suffering is. This is where Catholics have it right: a crucifix, in the sanctuary right there in front of our eyes at all times. No mere "idea," that….
This is a fabulous post… so much food for thought. But I'm laughing, because I just finished up a column about my favorite internet haunts, and I included Mockingbird, saying it was run by a bunch of "hip young theologians." Please don't be offended. I meant that with great affection. Funny timing, though, huh?
The churches McCracken is critiquing have replaced the centuries old relevancy of the gospel of grace with trying to be relevant. Being hip, relevant, insightful, being able to see culture the way we do on Mockingbird flows FROM the gospel. Not the other way around. Only after you see human nature, the law at work, and our need for continual redemption, do you then have a chance of being relevant and dare I say hip.
Alex
I'm cool.
Not me, I'm HOT.
Plus, we all know DZ is a preppy, not a hipster.
Is there a difference between a cool Christian and a Christian who's cool? Perhaps that is the question…
I am neither hip nor young. Just a middle aged, uncool occasional poster of comments. I do recall with fondness my first and only cowboy outfit. It was given to me at my 6th birthday party back in 1973, almost exactly 40 years ago. It was a lifetime ago and also yesterday. I believe the spirit of Roy Rogers is alive and well!!
What is cool anyway? The identity of cool is always changing. The moment you think you've earned it, it's become something different. That, and you can't declare yourself to be cool. true coolness is only ever given (reckoned!).
Guys, if we've learned anything here at M.B. it is: Anyone can be cool! Being awesome takes practice.
Seriously, there is a connection between this and the young evangelicals going to Rome.
I think cool is not contrived – it just is. There is a documentary on Guitar music called – Let's Get Loud – and has the Edge from U2, Jack White from the White Stripes and Jimmy Page from Led Zepplin. Watching the documentary – I was blown away by how COOL Jimmy Page was – it's just in every fiber of who is and his love of music just comes though – – it's genuine – not contrived. Jack White comes across as an angry dude – trying to be cool and just failing BECAUSE he's trying way too hard.
I think the problem that is raised in Journal article just hits at this attempt (or being contrived) at being 'cool' which always fails – it's disingenuous and that phoniness is readily apparently to people looking in from the outside…. Cool has different conotations in different audiences – but being 'fake' is rarely if ever validated as being 'cool' in any cohort…
To thy own self be true – – there is a confidence in assurance that we have as Christians that in theory gives us freedom – an assurance that transcends whether we're 'cool'.
This attempt at relevance when contrived is so terrible and antithetical to radically inclusive exclusivity Christ has given freely to us!
Midland Agr: I stole DS's list for my facebook status. What a provocative and insightful list.
Tom B: Couldn't agree more.
The truly cool (not synonymous popular) people I've known are the ones that have no idea they're cool. They are people who are simply comfortable in their own skin and who are interested in other people. Those people are simply wonderful and positively magnetic.