wrestling with radicalism

by austin pfeiffer


photo from adbusters issue 79


About a year ago, Adbusters had an article describing hipsters as the end of western civilization's great counter-cultural movements. The article draws a great comparison between the seeming counter-culture of hipsterdom with its reliance on consumerism, marketing, and capitalism. I am willing to subject myself to such scrutiny. The article points out the reliance on graphic design, fashion, brand names, and products as part of the movement. Its the first marketable counter culture Adbusters claims.

I've recently been thinking about martyrs. They are not mentioned very frequently these days. We like the idea of counter-culturalism, but for us it means our music independent, our beer hand crafted, and our produce local. But what does it mean to die for a cause? The counter culture of hipsterdom relies on making ourselves comfortable at home in the empire we dwell, even if there is some subversion to the normalcy of it. I think buying local, imbibing the work of artisans, and supporting somewhat non-commodified art are good things, but they lead me down a path of justification. They move from responsibility to activism. Fashion, food, art, are not bad things, but they essentially deal with me...me...me. To participate in these arenas of life would require I do so with some responsibility. Going to a mega-coffee chain for my coffee, buying clothes at a mall, eating out of season imported fruit, are perpetuating injustice and thus we must respond by finding ways to dress, eat, experience art, which are sustainable and productive, but they are not activism.

My fear is that I would become comfortable drinking good beer, hanging out in great coffee shops, riding my bike around town, and wearing American made clothes and were some freakish change to happen in our government and I as a Christian became an outlaw, I would cower from radicalism, resigning it to a justice filled lifestyle still centered on...me. People run across our border everyday risking their lives, people organize underground Churches in their homes in China, the Anabaptists of the 16th century were executed for not marrying their faith with the government and the sword (both, not just the government's army), and the martyrs of the first three centuries were not justice living consumers, they were Christians, pure and simple. They could not be anything else and since that was not legal, they were criminals.

I don't seek to be self-depricating, I will continue to live my earthly life, aware that my sheer existence will in and of itself have a consuming impact on earth. But I hope to keep reminding myself that radicalism does not usually end with me being the recipient of the reward. I don't need to find a way to be punished or persecuted, but I hope I don't live a life which would make it difficult for me to face such a prospect.

I am wretchedly terrible...in my awesomeness.

In the early 1990's, Bill Clinton's Presidential Campaign developed a communication tool now common place in the relationship between the American Press and society, marketplace, and politics...the sound bite. Clinton found himself daunted by the task of summarizing his policy, when his opponent had four years to reveal his to America. Before walking out to a debate, one of his advisers, Paul Begala, tossed a pocket Gideon's Bible at him and told him to check out an underlined verse. The verse was John 3:16. Clinton read it and looked back at him with an expression something like "yeah, everyone knows that one." Begala responded, "if Jesus can sum up salvation in one sentence, then you can certainly sum up your platform." The Clinton campaign and administration set a trend Americans now expect...if you can't say it one sentence, it might not be worth listening to. C.S. Lewis had a similar opinion of philosophy, commenting that if its not well summarized, it may be too complicated for its own good.

There are some ridiculous suppositions in American Christianity that are simply perpetuated concepts rooted in America's ideology of success, morality, and polished perfection. These are the principles which can be easily identified, but are often dismissed as "secular simplification that takes no account for the depth and complexity of Christianity." The defense of "you just don't understand its complexities" is just a knee jerk reaction by the ignorant and continues to tear a wider rift between the American Church and society.

So what are some of these suppositions? How about this equation:

control = wisdom

So often American Christians, in far more complex terms, make condescending assumptions asserting wisdom and maturity resides in people with control of their lives. Having a well kept house, with a barefoot wife and well dressed husband is the manifestation of spiritual wisdom. It confuses society though, because no one ever reconciles how this concept works when a mega church pastor does drugs and has sex with a male prostitute. They just throw the guy in "rehab" and tell people to stay on their side of the rift, because the Christian side is far to complex for them to understand. The irony is no one is offended by the recovering drug addict who tells people he needs Jesus to keep from killing himself.

Or how about these statements which are often bookends of long tirades of pulpit prosecution...

"I, myself am a terrible sinner"

Yeah, its pretty much a quote from the book of Romans, but don't you sometimes want to ask the person directly after saying this..."THEN WHY ARE YOU STANDING AT A PULPIT PREPARING TO SPEND 40 MINUTES TELLING ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE?"

Someone just needs to tell society they are right, these equations are not lining up. The best thing to do is listen to the sound bites of Jesus' philosophy and draw your own conclusions, because odds are the guy yelling at you on TV might end up going to jail and having his theme park go bankrupt.








***If you aren't familiar with the references to the pastors who "have gay affairs or go to jail", they are references to evangelical celebrity pastors Ted Haggard and Jim Bakker respectively. The concept of this website is to build bridges through critical thinking about the systems of American Christianity, and is not of the arrogance that these men are to be shamed and worthy cruel critique. On the contrary, they chose to be in the spotlight and as a result it seems appropriate to make examples of their tragedies, highlighting the impossible pressure from themselves and from the evangelical right of the past 25 years. These complexities collapse and as a result leave these mens lives and the lives around them shattered, which is tragic and wrong. The thesis is they would be avoided with deconstruction of the contradictions followed by acceptance of the human condition, rather than perpetuation of the impossible standards they were asked to meet by rejecting them.***

Cowboys and Cheerleaders: Legalism 101

The word legalism is a religious weapon used to define the distasteful constraints of Christianity. It could be described as a pop-Christian term that for those readers who haven't encountered the church may not be familiar with. Unfortunately its the suffocating, constricting, shrinking poison that makes the stars look a little dimmer, the mountains a little smaller, and that body of people who bind together to form "the church" look a little more depressing. The tragedy of legalism is its invasion into every part of Christianity. The term seems to always be associated with fundamentals or traditional Christians, but its a widespread disease infecting all people who follow Jesus.

Anytime we say something is supposed to be one way (churches should be ______, Christians should be _______, missions should be ________, worship should be ________) we exclude something else, immediately creating our own law. Its easy to criticize the American church for its ridiculous spending on lavish auditoriums, its easy to say all people should move to the third world for missions, its easy to describe worship as a noun, not a verb, and often the most guilty Pharisees are the idealistic young people who in their desire for the core of Jesus' teaching, discard components of creation they don't understand.

Men and women are great examples, because in America our views of masculinity and femininity are characterized in very external ways. Cowboys and cheerleaders, muscles and curves. Trying to say "God designed _______" a certain way, whether it be relationships, institutions, or even nature, we imply the death of God. Legalism implies God is gone, no longer creating...he laid out a design, which has miraculously evolved and is coincidently aligned with the current generations ideology.

But this is not true.

God CAN move the mountains, he IS moving mountains and creating stars. With all the movement of the galaxy, it would appear He has little time to nit-pick about the specifics of his design who is missing the point, so why should we continue to explore the "right way?" A fruitful action would be to explore the ever evolving creations of the relationships, nature, and evolving artistic endeavors of God.