Amish or Apostle?

1)Nice picture, huh?

2)Also, i am not knocking Amish here, though I have been tempted to laugh at this article (which I think my Anabaptist and Amish friends would laugh at, too!)



All that to say:

Great blog below by Brian Enis:


Thursday, October 13, 2005 Blog
http://www.myspace.com/brianenis

Bono - An apostle? by Brian Ennis


I see Bono as a leading example of what a Christian should be in today's post-modern context. Traditionally Christian leaders have advocated that Christians set themselves apart to a great degree from 'the world' and in doing so we've generally alienated ourselves from our culture and replaced popular culture with our own minority sub-culture. Our idea of evangelism in this context is to yell at the people over there in pop culture and tell them to come over here into our culture. Why would they want to do that? Our culture is so boring and cheesy most of the time.

I heard a speaker recently compare this idea to the Amish. If the only way to be saved was to be Amish most people in our world would rather go to hell. Would you want to be Amish? Me neither. What's the difference between that situation and the general situation at large between the Christian "community" and "the world"? I don't see much difference. That's why I think Bono is such a good example of how a Christian is to interact with culture. He is the culture. He's a professed follower of Jesus, yet he is not identified with the church. He's a pop icon. He doesn't have to take Jesus to the culture, he is the culture. He's a major player in shaping the post-modern culture of the world. He doesn't go to church. He goes all over the world trying to save the poor and oppressed in Africa and the rest of the world. How is that it takes a middle-aged Irish rock star to shame the church into engaging the AIDS crisis in Africa?

I think Jesus is pleased with Bono. Why don't the rest of us become so much a part of our culture that we are the culture? Instead of following the world in culture and arts, why aren't we influencing it on the strength of our creativity, our convictions, and our connective skills? Probably because we spend so much time going to church, attending meetings, maintaining our sub-culture, defending our culture, and tending to the sheep. We're too busy navel gazing to care much about engaging culture. We're lazy. We're self-centered. We're arrogant. We're elitist. We need to change. I need to change. The problem is I've spent my entire life thoroughly enmeshed in an irrelevant Christian sub-culture. I have no idea how to interact or engage pop culture. But, I'm going to figure out a way. For the sake of the gospel, and for my sake, I must.

Brian Enis
http://www.myspace.com/brianenis