I encountered my first Chick comic at Pine Hill Hunting Camp near Alpena, Michigan. I was a boy, evenings were slow, and somebody had left the thing lying around. It was an amusing little booklet entitled “This Was Your Life.” It pictured the postmortem agonies of some unsaved “everyman” as his life was replayed on… Continue Reading
Many conservative evangelical and even fundamentalist churches today have transformed the Christian faith into a kind of pop-culture version of The Way. This change began to become most prominent in the early 20th century, right after the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Joel Carpenter captures well the shift to pop religion in his important work on the history… Continue Reading
“Fundamentalists and Pentecostals share all the virtues and vices of popular culture,” says Nathan Hatch as he applies his analysis of the development of American Christianity. “Following the long tradition of democratic Christianity in America, Fundamentalists [which includes what are more commonly known today as Evangelicals] and Pentecostals reject modernity as it is expressed in… Continue Reading
Nathan Hatch, in his Democratization of American Christianity, writes concerning the changes in American religion due to the implicit notion of the “Sovereign Audience”: Popular gospel music became a pervasive reality in Jacksonian culture because people wrested singing from churchly control. The music created a spontaneous, moving medium, capable of capturing the identity of plain… Continue Reading
Anthony Bradley recently submitted a commentary for World magazine publicizing ‘holy hip hop.’ He writes, “If you are looking for theologically saturated Christian music that has the greatest potential for widespread appeal, your best option may be Christian hip-hop.” The first sentence gives away a great deal. First, he missteps in the first clause, for… Continue Reading
Our attention spans are shrinking. This is not news, and perhaps I’ve already lost you. Thoughtful people have said that the impressive array of media and entertainment consumption portals play an important role in the attention spans of individuals, especially children and young adults. For example, Jason Fertig writes, Many modern media trends have done… Continue Reading
Reflecting on the demise of Crystal Cathedral, Harriet Baber wrote in the Guardian this stinging indictment of American evangelicalism: Of course we don’t expect popular entertainments to last. Fashion is arbitrary. There was no particular reason why hip-hop replaced disco or why the 1970s favoured earth tones while the 1990s featured violet and teal. We… Continue Reading