I read a story from Rolling Stone magazine about BattleCry, a Christian crusade organization that is looking to get teenagers to "declare war" on secular culture. Nothing all that new under the sun, but there comes a point where one's eyes finally bulge out of the socket due to the absurdity of it all.
Later, one of Luce's PR reps takes me backstage to sift through the bins of rejected affections. Most kids mention music, movies, girlfriends and boyfriends, sex or, surprisingly often, just condoms, but a number of new warriors are oddly precise about their proposed abandonings. They cast into perdition Starbucks (multiple votes), Victoria's Secret (ditto; Luce encourages kids to confront the managers of lingerie stores), cereal (Special K and Cap'n Crunch), hip-huggers, "smelling amazing," "vengeance," "medication" and A&W root beer. "I would say it's ridiculous what they are doing to root beer," wrote the boy who will drink A&W no more.
Rolling Stone : Teenage Holy War
Wow. Youth crusades inspired a kid to give up root beer. And while that may sound innocuous, as a former student of religion, I'd much rather kids give up sex than give up root beer. I know that sounds crazy, but whereas sex may induce disease and unwanted pregnancy, root beer is root beer. It is sugar water with a very unique flavour. In other words, if we've gotten to the point where root beer is a danger to "Christianity", how far can we really go?
Funny enough, I'd like to think of this blog as not being a political blog, but in many ways it is. I'm not espousing a conservative or liberal ideology. I'm simply asking for sanity. Christians, go ahead and be Christian. I'm not stopping you. In fact, I'm a Christian myself. But in your goal to follow your religion, perhaps it is wise to stay sane. Root beer is not your enemy. Condoms are not your enemy. Cease and desist from confronting Victoria Secret saleswoman as the enjoyment of sexuality is definitely not prohibited by the Bible.
In other words, what I'm saying is that you should take a look around you. The gay person you go to work with is not some theological problem to be worked out, but an actual person who probably has a lot of stuff going on in his mind, so if you could be kind, please do not share an opinion with him that is not invited. There is a time in which the cultural wars should cease being fought and you should listen — listening is not something that is valued these days.
Religion isn't about "war". Religion is about relating with God. Sometimes God wants you to open up a can of root beer and enjoy it.
3 comments:
Found your site via Reddit. As a fellow believer, thanks for sharing this perspective.
I really appreciated your level-headed request for sanity. It is good to know there are still good, sane Christians out there yet!
I agree sanity is good. But in a crowd of teenagers that large it's probably not very unlikely that someone may have just been making a joke about the root beer thing. lighten up you guys.
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