Culture Wars

While attending a Christian men's conference, I saw something that made me cringe! It was this:

How long are we, as Christians, going to follow in the footsteps of culture as though we are it's pitiful little brother? For years, Christians created culture! Galileo, Copernicus (you have to be a Christian to be excommunicated), Michelangelo. Now we are so far behind culture we've been lapped. There is an enormous vault of examples of the Christian subculture imitating American culture. Guitar Praise (which is Guitar Hero with Christian music) is just the most recent offender in this long line of wannabes.

Interestingly enough, recently, culture has begun to imitate (or perhaps, more appropriately mock) the Christian subculture. We all remember the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) movement? I believe this was the first victim of the reverse imitation.

"What would Jerry Do" was one of the first to appear (left). I have to give "What Would Jason Do" an honorary mention. I have also seen personalized bracelets ("What Would Henry Do" and the like). I've also seen it turned into "Who" rather than "What".

Then next Christian item to fall victim was the dreaded bumper sticker!


became



One of the most interesting "conversations" between the Christian subculture and the ... non-Christian subculture is expressed in the following icons:

The Icthus Fish was an early Christian symbol stemming from the days of persecution. A believer would draw a semi-circle in the sand. If the person they were with was also a believer (or a follower of "The Way," as they called themselves then.) they would complete the fish by drawing the second half of the circle that crosses the first creating the tail. If not, they would usually either do nothing, or complete the full circle.

Misunderstanding the Icthus, anti-Christians created this symbol, "evolving" the Icthus with feet (and just in case we followers of The Way were too dumb to understand, they tossed Darwin's name in the fish, so we'd be sure to get it.)




Not to be outdone, Christians fired back.




And then the "anti-Christians" struck a blow that most believers didn't understand. This is the "Flying Spaghetti Monster." What does this have to do with anything? It was a response to the letter to the Kansas Board of Education regarding Intelligent Design. Because ID doesn't specifically mention God, but rather any "Intelligent Creator", opponents wrote a letter stating they believed that a "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was the Intelligent Creator. Somehow, this has flown almost entirely under the Christian Subculture's radar. I think, however, that sometime soon we will see something like this: