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Since there are now 50+ pieces in this beatnik Christianity series, a number of folks who either never saw the opener or read it but several months later have forgotten the big picture are asking what my intention is. Here’s the best explanation I can muster:
This beatnik Christianity series will hopefully be turned into my first book. Right now, the focus is on getting the ideas out in the shortest possible form. If things work out, the book will land at a Q&A list of 95 because there’s some historical amusement in that, but we’ll see. There’s at least 40 to go before retreating to the Batcave for the summer’s editing.
The basic deal is I affirm the essential skeleton belief system of The Way of Jesus more than ever but completely and emphatically disagree with how it has been culturally fleshed out. It’s to the point that I’m now pretty well allergic to every facet of Christian culture. In my opinion, it’s Christ-less Christianity and I can’t fuckin’ handle it anymore.
The thing is, I can’t walk away, either. I’ve done a shit ton of therapy and can confidently report I’m not suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, fearing the eternal consequences of being wrong, or languishing in a professional conundrum of Sunk-Cost Fallacy. If it were any of that, I’d still be operating within conservative evangelical circles.
It’s that I love Jesus. Now more than ever, to be honest. If I can be forgiven a flawed analogy for how I feel about Jesus, the Kingdom of God, and the Church these days, I really think the architect is incredible, those original blueprints were astounding, and the foundation is sound. It’s too bad the general contractors were incompetent goobers.
Obviously we all have areas of brokenness, inconsistency, idolatry, implicit bias, and all the rest. I’m no capital-S Saint. Nevertheless, my core identity lies in being a Jesus follower whose primary citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. I’ve searched other world religions and learned a lot, but at the end of the day I remain grafted into the covenant people.
Tough question: what do you do when you love Jesus and are truly convinced of the redemptive story arc of Scripture, but are equally convinced that Christian culture has idolatrous rot all the way to its core? Well, crap. For lack of a better option, I’ve decided to cultivate an entirely different culture for following The Way of Jesus.
As was made plain in the very first piece, I’m no Restorationist. I grew up Pentecostal and have had more than enough of that thank you very much. Instead I’m a church history guy. As such almost none of the content in this series is unprecedented. What is novel, I suppose, is the overall reconfiguration of the cultural script for following Jesus.
I’ve ecumenically gleaned a lot of positive influence from the Anglican, Anabaptist, and Orthodox streams of faith. Yet you’ll also find sharp criticisms of these traditions. To a lesser extent, the same is true of Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, Moravians, etc. Only Pentecostalism receives well-earned criticism without praise.
The vibe here is supposed to be open-ended, conversational, and sincere without being… ya know… “nice.” Kind I like. The same goes for compassionate, thoughtful, curious, and authentic. But nice? Nice is a passive-aggressive tool of pious Christian culture that I detest with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Nice can go straight to eternal conscious hell.
My intention with this project isn’t to pretentiously declare that I have figured it out, landed with certainty, and know all the answers. Nah, I don’t. Down deep I still feel like I have a much clearer sense of what’s wrong than what’s right, but I don’t want to be one of those tools whose identity is grounded in resentful opposition. That’s unhealthy.
In this series I’m saying, “Here are the questions I’ve been wrestling with for 20+ years. After a whole lot of study, prayer, and reflection, here are my tentative proposals for answers. That’s where the dialogue begins. If you agree, cool. Why? If you disagree, cool. Why AND what’s your better alternative? What I won’t abide is apathy or the status quo.”
I’m not content with merely asking the important questions and leaving it there like the old Emerging Church movement nor am I content with accepting the established norms and institutional expectations. There’s got to be another way of Being and Doing that is more faithful to the countercultural life and ministry of Jesus in the New Testament.
Please note that those who are perfectly content with how they’ve been enculturated in their various traditions will no doubt hate most of this series. I’m OK with that. They’re not the intended audience. I’m trying to maintain the right level of “skin thickness” between too sensitive and too calloused, but am already tired of the ignorant heresy accusations.
This project is intended as a conversation starter, especially for the deconstruction crowd and/or those who suffer from religious trauma inflicted in these spaces. I see you, hear you, believe you, and am one of you. The shit we’ve endured from the “Bride of Christ” is not OK and I’m done being quiet about it to protect their honor-shame BS and precious institutions.
One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from Cornel West. He said, “I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” Yup. That’s my disposition as well. This beatnik Christianity series? It’s a step of faith. With a cautious spirit of hope, I’m trying to turn the corner and work towards psychological healing and spiritual reconstruction.
Always be leery of anyone who self-describes as humble, but I’m trying to humbly offer an alternative, countercultural vision for following Jesus and incarnating the Kingdom. It’s an experiment, so there will inevitably be a process of trial and error. The vision that I’m describing as beatnik Christianity will evolve. It’s all good. That’s part of the fun.
