Monday, September 8, 2008

Too Christian, Too Pagan

"Following Jesus today requires you to practice that same singleminded nonconformity. And it will produce the same effect in your life that it did with Jesus. If you truly follow Jesus, in addition to enjoying a most excellent adventure, you will likely end up seeming too Christian for many of your pagan friends and too pagan for many of your Christian friends. When you truly follow Jesus, you'll spend considerable time in the world like he did, and as a result, many of your religious friends will think you're too irreligious. On the other hand, many of your irreligious friends will find it odd that you are too focused on the spiritual. Thus, you end up seeming both too Christian and too pagan." ~Too Christian, Too Pagan by Dick Staub

This is the one quote that really stuck out to me when I was doing my reading for my youth culture class. Now that I think about it, I've known people that I thought were too worldly that they couldn't be Christian at the same time, yet they were still very "Christian". It confused me, but now I know that they were being more like Jesus than I thought I was because I didn't do anything that wasn't "Christian". I'm slowly trying to change my ways and my thoughts, but it's not very easy to just discard something that I've believed to be true my whole life. I want to be more like Jesus, therefore, I want the quote above to describe me. 

In my quest to better understand the culture in which we live, I've been asking people for music, movie, tv show, etc. suggestions. So what do you think is good? Please feel free to leave as many comments as you want with suggestions.

2 comments:

  1. Music: Sigur Ros, Paper Route, Bon Iver, Iron and Wine, Coldplay, Explosions in the Sky, She and Him, Between the Trees, Copeland

    Moves: The Village, American Beauty, Lady in the Water, Winter Passing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Juno, Unbreakable, No Country for Old Men, King of California, Adaptation, Into the Wild

    Television: Lost (!!!), Mad Men

    All of these listed above are "secular" entertainment, though I don't like that word. However, they all have profound spiritual messages and topics that are often subconsciously expressed.

    In fact, asking how to feel closer to God, I would highly recommend watching every single movie I listed above. None of them are "Christian" movies or were made by Christians but I've often felt closer to God after watching one of those movies than sitting through a church service or listening to "Christian music." And then write about each film.

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  2. Thanks for the suggestions. I listened to all of the music. My favorite was Between the Trees. I also really liked Sigur Ros and Paper Route. I haven't watched any of the movies yet. It's kind of hard to watch TV shows at school because I don't have a TV and I only found one full episode of Mad Men online, but haven't had the chance to watch it yet. I saw some clips and it seems interesting. I especially like the costumes. If you ever have more suggestions don't hesitate to leave another comment. Thanks again. :]

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