Cool and Hip: The new fundy’s

On January 27th, 1991 Jesus saw fit to save me.

I was seventeen-years old and my life radically changed. Jesus captured my soul and as a result he started changing my heart, my mind and my strength.

As a teen-ager it was as if I had just inherited a Lamborghini and had no idea what to do with it. As I became aware of all of the sin that was around me I put the car in 5th gear and raced down the fundamentalist highway of legalism.

I immediately gave up all “secular” music and ingested a steady diet of Petra, Whitecross and Kieth Green. I ditched all of my shirts with buttons for shirts that said things like, “This Blood’s For You”, “God’s Gym” and “Jesus, never leave home without Him”. That’s right I was that guy.

A few years later as I began to “grow” I learned more about all of the things that Jesus Freaks were supposed to wear, how we were supposed to speak, what hair-styles we were supposed to have and who we were supposed to hate. I graduated from Bible College and headed to seminary as a 21 year old who owned eight suits, parted his hair with lots of gel and could hate with the best of them while listening to “Armed and Dangerous” on my Sony walk-man. Seminary here I come. I was a Fundy and the code of fundy’s is:

To count the number of curse words in television shows and boycott is too many.
To bash secular music and film artists and only listen to “Christian” music.
To wear suits that cost more than a young college kid makes in a year.
To talk about reaching said college students while in that suit.

In coming posts I will explain how Jesus saved me once again (this time not for salvation but from being a jerk) but I stop here to make an observation.

A few years ago I began to “grow” again and I learned about all of the things that the emerging generation was supposed to wear, how we were supposed to speak, what hair-styles we were supposed to have and who we were supposed to hate. (well passive aggressive hate that is we just make fun now). I started attending church conferences and reading blogs and as a 31 year old who owned one suit, but lots of cool and hip shirts and jeans, messed up my hair with lots of product and could hate (make fun) of people with the best of them while listening to “Sufjan Stevens” on my I-pod. U-2 fan club here I come. I was a Hip and cool Fundy and the code of the hip and cool fundy’s is:

To drop a few curse words on your blog or “admit” that you did in your sermon.
To bash Christian music and only listen to secular music.
To wear clothes that cost more than the average Kenyan makes in a year.
To talk about how we need to give more dollars to AIDS support in Kenya while wearing said clothes.

Seems to me that we have the same issues, we have just replaced them with different methods. And though we may have put some of the “fun” back into fundamentalism I think it still smells bad to God.

Jesus talked about this same issue to the church folk of his time too in Luke 14:7-14. I can not say it better than Matt Chandler did this past weekend:

“We are worse than the pharisees, the pharisees would take social status by where you sat at dinner, let me tell you where we take it. we take something that is a necessity for life and we stylize it and turn it into levels of coolness. So like we take something basic like shoes. You need shoes. but we take something that should be just baseline, ‘I need to not bleed when I walk’ and we take that and we go lets make $400 and $500 shoes and lets feel better about ourselves over others because we can afford, well not afford, but get debt into to buy $400 shoes.   So its not the dinner table to us – it’s pants – which is far stupider.”

Just a thought.