Inventing Pop Culture...

In reading about the development of popculture and global culture, I am struck by the credibility so many of us give pop culture without really addressing it deeper. Too often we find ourselves swimming downstream on the river fo culture faster than the rest of society. We don't really think about where the river is goign or how clean the river is, but hey, everybody esle is doing it... right? I think the church really needs to reasess the way we interact and integrate pop culture. Don't misunderstand me... iIt's one thing to incorporate a guitar and rock music into worship on Sundays, but what about the rest of the week. How are we setting ourselves apart from the rest of society? How do we live by a different set of standards while living in the same culture?

As we approach mass media with discretion, it is important that we also acknowledge the shadows of truth that we find in them. For instance, one might watch the Godfather and only see organized crime, but it portrays the pain and horrors of living that lifestyle. Or, in a sex-saturated culture, one could draw attention to how it shows the desire for intimacy, love, and emotional security. In many of these areas, particularly film and music, there is a high level of artistic quality that is appealing and uplifting. We can use these “footprints” of God as bridges as we reach out to non Jesus followers. One exception to this is the area of advertising. It is difficult to find a redeeming quality in it. One could say that beer commercials show the desire for community and relationships with the opposite sex, however seductive they may be. Or, these days tobacco commercials tell us that tobacco products kill us. Perhaps, we could say that in endorsing and selling consumerism and materialism they are encouraging us to support the economy, giving jobs to thousands of people across the world. Too bad those jobs are going to third world nations, so corporations don’t have to pay people sufficiently. Ok, that last one may cross the line. Nevertheless, it is important for us as Jesus followers to search for and acknowledge the important background issues and positive values in mass media. But we also need to take moral stands and not except everything as “shadows of the truth.” For instance, form a positive perspective, the movie The Wedding Crashers shows the importance of true love, but it also is had nudity, sex scenes and was bursting with sexual innuendo. As funny as it was (…and it was very funny), I couldn’t help but feel “dirty” when I left the theatre. I don’t want to see the movie again, nor would I encourage anyone else to see it because of those aspects of it. In situations like these, I think we still need to be shrewd about what we allow ourselves and our families to watch and listen to because even though we can extract positive ideas from media, it is not a green-light to do whatever we want. I Corinthians 10:23: “‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up.”