I'm from the old Southern black Baptist church tradition - churches on almost every square mile of ancient towns, morning that start with Sunday school, then deacon-led prayer service complete with lining hymns and long prayers, and finally preaching that ends with inviting folks to be baptized.
I've gotten away from all of that a little bit because my sexual orientation has caused me to seek out God on my own.
But when I see how some other folks are trying to get away from old church traditions (be they the ones I described or others), I simply have to wonder about why some people try so hard to make religion "hip" or "up to date." It comes across as corny.
Like so:
An older, deeply religious friend of mine (as an aside, she and her husband are very accepting of gay people) belongs to a Presbyterian church in Virginia which in the past decade or so has added “contemporary worship” to the Sunday morning schedule. She’s also a trained classical musician and hates this kind of stuff. Calls it “Jesus is my boyfriend” music.
ReplyDeleteI love the Anon at 11:16AM comment.
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole thing about modern Christianity, it's about your personal relationship with Christ and it's annoying as all hell to an atheist like me.
What these idiots making these contemporary (Hip-Hop, Rock, R&B etc.) songs don't realize is that you cannot sublimate the God/Jesus thing for sex, drugs and rock and roll/hip-hop/r&b without it sounding hollow and corny.
And as to the religious idiots enforcing their world view on the Texas Board of Edumacation, it's a loosing battle.
Over the past four months I've been out doing program reviews in high schools and one thing astounds me. I've never seen so many computers in a school.
And what is to stop me or myself and friends from writing an evolution text, or a poli-sci or social studies text that mentions Old Newt Gingrich but also mentions that he may not be the most sincere fellow since he's divorced numerous wives.
That was scary.
ReplyDelete