A couple of years ago at Cornerstone, I met a very personable and humorous writer named Daniel Radosh. He writes for a lot of magazines not often scouting the farmlands of western Illinois, oh, like Playboy, GQ, the New Yorker, and my personal favorite weekly read, The Week. He mentioned that he was writing a book about Christian Pop Culture, which is always a favorite topic of mine. Really stand up guy and I was glad to get to know him a bit, and introduce him to a few folks.
Well, the time has come, and the book hits streets in a few weeks.
So not too long ago, in my mailbox was a copy of <span style=”font-weight:bold;”>Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture</span>. The cover hosts a innocent sunglassed girl in a bright happy pink dress apparently being raptured into the sky. At this point, I was a little bit nervous. Especially knowing that I had made it into chapter 10.
This is not your parent’s book – especially if your parents tend to run on the conservative side of the spectrum. The language is colourful, but always funny, and his observations of Left Behind (‘that’s right, there’s Buck Williams and Rayford Steele. There’s also Steve Plank, Bruce Barnes, and Dirk Burton. Apparently, having a porn star name is enough to keep you from getting raptured”), Christ of the Ozarks (“If Rio’s Christ the Redeemer married Mt. Rushmore’s George Washington and had a retarded child, it would be Christ of the Ozarks”) and the CBA Convention (“a pastor’s endorsement added, ‘This golf ball is the most effective outreach tool I have ever seen in golf,’ raising the question of how many golf-based outreach tools there are. Does someone make a Cleansed by His Blood ballwasher?”) made me laugh out loud.
He isn’t really kind in many ways, but here’s the kicker -
He’s right.
Looking into the history of people like Tim LaHaye and Gerald L.K. Smith, we really shouldn’t be drinking all the kool-aid that is packaged “Christian”. We need to be our own gatekeepers of our own faith. To research, pay attention and support artists and writers and comedians and who enhance our faith and promote the same ideals that are the basis of our religion – hope. peace. love.
One of his statements that really stuck with me was his statements on altar-calls at events, and keeping tabs on the numbers of people who respond. He’s referencing that his sister-in-law and her friends literally join in at every event, and he refers it to a ‘second rate band carving notches in the altar for them’. Concert time public response has bothered me for years. Here’s what he says:
“And even if some of the people who come forward have been genuinely moved to confess their sins for the first time, are they really Christians now? It’s one thing to get caught up with the excitement of a wrestling match or rock show or even a traditional sermon, but what happens the next day or the next week? Do they read the Bible, go to church, talk to a pastor? Maybe. But maybe not. The fetishization of the altar call as a single moment of victory seems to obscure the need for the hard work that is must take to bring somebody to a genuinely meaningful faith.”
And what’s nice too is, he actually promotes some of our little universe. Not all of general pop culture is great, but some of it is. And some of it is wonderful in Christianity too. So thank you Daniel for not throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.
“But the best aspects of Christian culture – the unabashed celebration of the transcendent, the challenge to crass materialism, the commitment to personal responsibility – helped me more clearly to see what is too often lacking in secular entertainment and media. Jesus’s radical message of brotherhood, selflessness, and dignity may be just the antidote to our contemporary ethos of shamelessness and overindulgence.”
On the back cover there’s a quote from A.J. Jacobs that says “Daniel Radosh writes about Christian culture with brilliance, humor and understanding. Everyone should read this book – with the possible exception of Stephen Baldwin (see page 143).” I agree. So get Rapture Ready on April 8. Or just getraptureready.com and check it out for yourself.
