Apparently there's some book coming out called "Hipster Christianity: When Church + Cool Collide." (Pre-order now!) See the website. I can't quite figure out what the point of it is...it seems to me like the kind of book a Christian hipster would write (and read), so all the clever barbs (and they are) seem a bit boomerang-ish. I was interested in the four "types" of Christian hipster, mostly because the props in some of the pictures are of Catholic imagery--mostly of the Sacred Heart--liturgical calendars and books by Catholics. Cherry-picking through Christian traditions and molding them around oneself, which totally misses the point. Growing up Protestant Evangelical and working at L'Abri exposes one to a lot of this kind of thing: rhetoric about "relevance" (ugh), concentration on matters really peripheral to the faith (like homosexuality, women in ministry, etc.), an almost obsessive focus on the church's "failures," especially in matters of "justice," that translates into long confessions and postures of welcome to and "engagement" with the rest of the world. Often I've found that the anti-establishment posture was against churches, because it was all the cradle Protestants knew, and stuff like NPR and voting Democrat was exciting, relevant, and edgy. In their world, they were going against the flow (just like Jesus, right?). Which is hilarious. I could go on. There really are types, and it's pretty funny to see how this author depicts them. Still, like I said...the whole exercise is one which would require one to be a Christian hipster to engage in with any amount of seriousness. (Note: not everyone who showed up at L'Abri was like that, but they were definitely around.)
There's even a quiz to see where you fit in the ranks! I took it, I admit. Most of the questions were completely irrelevant to me (so, joke's on them!), but I answered them as best I could.
Take the quiz here. I myself scored at 61/120, so apparently I have a...
"Low CHQ [Christian Hipster Quotient]. You probably belong to the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Christian establishment, even though you are open to some of the "rethinking Christianity" stuff. You seem to like edginess in some measure but become uneasy when your idea of Christian orthodoxy is challenged by some renegade young visionary who claims the virgin birth isn't necessary."
I can't decide how much the phrase "renegade young visionary who claims the virgin birth isn't necessary" is supposed to be a joke. How long has that been around? I think the old word for this kind of "visionary" was "heretic," but hey. I guess I'm just "uneasy." You know, easily shaken...and apparently "Hawaiian shirt-wearing."
Where do you fit in?
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7 comments:
Ok, firstly, I got the same score as you. Wanna get matching Hawaiian shirts?
Secondly, I also don't understand the point of this book. It seems so silly. What are we supposed to take away from it? It can't possibly give us a deeper look into our faith or even ourselves- unless we're just really into being trite and ironic. Honestly, most of those questions were lost on me too. As in, I had no idea nor did I give a damn what they were talking about.
The whole thing is such a bore. What's "being cool" got to do with Christianity or vice versa?
Well, to be fair, I think that's the point of the book. "Why are we trying to be cool and Christian?" Etc. Obviously it's making fun of these people. Fine by me, but I can't imagine reading a whole book about it. It's just more navel-gazing for people who are in the scene. Yawn. Except for the Hawaiian shirts--although I don't know about matching ones for you and me. Gotta be my own person, you know.
I got a slightly higher score: 66. I'm pretty sure that's because a couple of those questions were of the close-your-eyes-and-pick-one variety for me. Even assuming certain things, there were still questions I had no idea about. I don't think I understood any of the last question about the End Times. Who the heck is Glenn Beck? What is a Preterist?
What's sad is that I have a childhood friend who would probably devour this book and love it.
Glenn Beck's a...I don't know what to say. He's a pop conservative radio/tv personality. I don't know much about him myself; it's because I don't care.
A preterist is...uuughhh. It's "End Times" stuff and a question of how to interpret Scripture. There are degrees of preterism--full preterism means that you believe all biblical prophecy was fulfilled by AD 70, which is when the Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans. To me, it's not worth getting in a twist over. Catholics can be partial (not full) preterists, but thinking about it in those terms seems silly. All a Catholic needs is what we say every Sunday: "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." And that's plenty. I believe that if you start arranging your life based upon an anticipation of HOW all this stuff is going to work out, you're already off track. Theological conspiracy theories. Can be fun, can be interesting, but the Church has said what needs to be said on the subject.
I think all this stuff is more on the American Protestant scene. Catholics have their little dramas, too, but this ain't one of 'em. God be praised.
Ha ha ha ha ha. I'm 20 years older than you all, I'm Catholic, I go to the Latin Mass every week, Palestrina is my idea of Christian Music, and I got a 78.
"High CHQ. You are a pretty progressive, stylish, hipster-leaning Christian, even while you could easily feel at home in a decidedly un-hip non-denominational church. You are conservative on some issues and liberal on others, and sometimes you grow weary of trendy "alt-Christianity." But make no mistake: You are a Christian hipster to at least some degree."
It's because my shirt came from the thrift store, I know it is. (and because I didn't know what to answer on a number of them, because I'd never heard of any of the possibilities. And I said I'd take a course in Literary Calvinism, for the "literary" part, and because all the alternatives made me want to throw up).
I love the "make no mistake" preface to the last sentence in the CHQ assessment. Make no mistake, Sally, you have made a mistake.
Yeah, I picked Literary Calvinism for the same reason. The other choices really do call forth, as Aelred would say, the "techni-colored yawn."
Well, it wasn't a mistake I meant to make. Too often, all the choices were wrong. Yet one cannot choose nothing. What else was I to do?
Except look hipper and hipper in this thrift-store shirt, of course.
Hoo, my code-word today is: "yoness."
Yo! Ness!
Behold me in all my yo-ness.
etc.
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