Quite some time ago, Eldon forwarded me an article that has periodically resurfaced in my thinking. The article originally appeared in GQ magazine (September 2002), and is written by Walter Kirn, GQ’s literary editor (at least at the time of the article). I must say that I have no idea what Kirn’s personal beliefs may be and the (sometimes crude) article will offend many, but I’m guessing that’s the point.

Kirn is (in admittedly over-the-top fashion) pointing out something that haunts many who truly love Christ and creativity; mainstream Christianity often lacks both. Rather than understanding that Christians were once and still should be at the forefront of the arts, we are content to copy mainstream culture and regurgitate poor facsimiles of what was the trend six months ago (if not more).

The article is entitled What Would Jesus Do? and ridiculously subtitled But more important, what were Jesus’ fitness 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.

The premise is that Kirn will spend seven (transparent number choice) living in the “Christian” subculture, “ark culture” he calls it. In other words, he will read “Christian” fiction, listen to “Christian” music, consult “Christian”news sources, watch “Christian” entertainment, admire “Christian”art, and I hope you’re picking up the pattern here.

On Day Two, Kirn remarks “I wake aboard the Ark. The old Ark, the biblical Ark, constructed to save the chosen from the Great Flood, had two of every creature in existence. The new Ark, the cultural Ark, built to save the chosen from the Great Media Flood, also has two of everything I’m learning.” Kirn then equates Third Day as our Pearl Jam, Ted Dekker as our Tom Clancy and Bibleman as our Batman and on down the cultural food chain.

But, in the end, Kirn finds his Christian cocoon slightly disconcerting. Describing some Christian musicians, he notes “They’re not bad at all. Because their lyrics are mostly unintelligible, there’s no way to know they’re even Christian, really. And yet, in the same way one sensed that groups like Abba were singing in a language they didn’t speak, one detects a certain falseness in these bands’ sound. They’re trying too hard, somehow.” He concludes: “They sound a bit like foreigners — highly trained Asian prodigies whose governments have equipped them with guitars and trained them in some elite punk-rock academy. These new Christian bands rock like Americans play soccer; skillfully but somehow not convincingly.”

Kirn concludes, “What makes the stuff so half-assed, so thin, so weak and cumulatively so demoralizing has nothing to do with faith. The problem is lack of faith. Ark culture is a bad Xerox of the mainstream, not a truly distinctive or separate achievement. Without the courage to lead, it numbly follows, picking up the major media’s scraps and gluing them back together with a cross on top.”

Kirn clearly has a distaste (as do I) for the mimicry that passes as Christian creativity. But I think that his comments also shine light on some deeper issues. The world knows when we try to position ourselves as something we are not. They know when we’re trying to “fit in.” The church (particularly those claiming to be emerging) has bought into the concept that we need to make things “relevant” to our surrounding culture. We have lost faith in the power of the gospel and as such, we feel that we must dress up in the latest cultural costume in order to slip through the door. We feel that we have to earn the right to be heard by being “one of the guys.” See, we can wear the same clothes; I’ve got my soul patch too; we even have the same type of music! The result, too often is that we end up being mocked rather than accepted.

Yet, we are called not to “fit in,” but to confront. We cannot mold the gospel into “relevance.” The message of sin and salvation is so alien to our culture that the call to repentance bounces off hardened hearts. But, loving as Christ loved, serving in humility, offering Total Truth, what could be more “relevant” than unleashing the power of the Gospel rather than dressing it up in the latest fad? The world knows when we’re pretending to be something we’re not. Do they know better than we do?

Read the original article by Walter Kirn.
Read Walter Kirn’s books.
Read Taking the Swagger Out of Christian Cultural Influence by John Piper.
Read Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer.
View a Christian Music Comparison Chart.
Visit “Relevant” Magazine’s website.
Buy a Raiders of the Lost Ark movie poster.

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