You Might NOT Be Emergent If…
As balance to the post a few days ago (”You Might Be Emergent If...”), here’s a photo quiz to find out if you are not emergent.
And this guy totally sums up the “best” of the emergent critiques. Too bad Carson couldn’t have read his blog before writing his book. This is the kind of objective “conversation” he was obviously after!
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December 9th, 2005 at 10:34 am
mark, you are HILARIOUS. what about an emergent/reformed hybrid?? what would that look like. because i drive a little honda and hate crap-coffee, but i like JII Packer…
December 9th, 2005 at 10:39 am
Maybe that would be a good post-examic project for me, to put together a photo montage of what a Reformed/emergent hybrid looks like. I’m open to suggestions (remember, they have to be in image form in deference to our word-challenged emergent bretheren/sistern)
December 9th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
what’d you say?
December 10th, 2005 at 1:56 am
What’d I say about what?
December 10th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Mark, to be honest for a sec: I don’t know why - I know these photo quizzes are meant to be in good humour - but something about them feels cliquish, uncharitable and immature to me … like the popular group turning their nose up at kids who have on the wrong brand of jeans. They seem preoccupied with things superficial and focused on what divides rather than what builds up. It doesn’t seem becoming to a spirit of unity in Christ’s church, and makes me a little sad.
December 10th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
Oops, for the record - that was me (Rachel) who wrote the above comment, NOT my sweet husband. I was accidentally logged on as his name.
December 10th, 2005 at 1:27 pm
Well, that’s the danger of any satire, isn’t it? Some of the Greek dramatists, the inventors of satire, lived under the threat of exile or even death for their work. Yet I think satire has a valuable place if used carefully. Good satire (and by that I mean satire which helps us to see our own foibles) is not developed with a mean spirit but because one loves and cares about that which is being satirized, in this case the church (really not the Church, but the cultures we develop within the Church).
In order to benefit from such satire, we first need to not take ourselves too seriously. Actually, I think there’s a gospel paradox here. In one sense, the gospel calls us to take ourselves very seriously (eternal destiny at stake, sin as offense against a holy God, etc.), yet in another sense, it invites us to not take ourselves so seriously. We are told to not think more highly of ourselves more higly than we ought (Rom 12:3). We are called to be “fools for Christ” who make the wisdom of this world look like foolishness while speaking the wisdom of heaven which is foolishness to men (hence my Internet moniker “foolish sage”). Paul’s writing is replete with satire (especially evident in the Greek): gentle satire toward the Christians he is teaching (esp. the Galatians and Corinthians), a little harsher on himself (esp. 2 Cor) and harshest on the enemies of the gospel (Galatians). Or think of Elijah on Mr. Carmel asking the prophets of Baal if their god is perhaps on the toilet. So I think there is a precedent for Chrisitan satire, although it is a sword we must wield wisely and carefully.
Personally, I think the two satirical “quizzes” I linked to are written in that positive vein. They are meant to force us to see exactly what you are taking offense at, Rachel: that by building little cultures within the church based on our preference for worship style, clothing, coffee, and other outward marks, we fracture the body of Christ. It is my hope that this satire helps show these things up as ridiculous (literally “worthy of ridicule”) and thereby help us to seek the Holy Spirit’s light in our own lives as to where we may be unconciously pursuing cliquishness and exclusivity.
December 10th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Thanks, Mark - sounds like I misunderstood. I didn’t realize those were satires meant to poke fun at the superficiality of it all; I actually thought they were some kind of celebration of those “distinctives” - but if what you say is correct, then I retract my statement. Thanks for clarifying.
December 10th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
No apology needed, Rachel. I could be mistaken as well; I’m just giving the benefit of the doubt to the posters of those satires, that they were meant in the spirit in which I’m taking them and not maliciously.
And I didn’t mean to “go off” so on your question…but I’d been looking for an excuse for some time now to post more updated thoughts on Christian satire, and you gave me an opening!
December 10th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
glad to be of service! And I really did appreciate clarification.
December 11th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
As Johnny always said…
That’s funny stuff.
December 12th, 2005 at 10:03 am
Hmmm. The first quiz told me I’m not emergent, and this one tells me I’m not NOT emergent. It’s a good thing I was already confused or this would have really confused me.
December 23rd, 2005 at 8:03 pm
Satire cuts both ways. Check out this new take on the emergent church.
http://www.emergentstrikesback.blogspot.com