Here and there, it’s spot on; but my fear is that it flirts with the edge and settles for the empty satisfaction of a cultural ego-trip—thirsty to hear cool people say: “Wow! You’re doing great things for God!”
Sexy Christianity Looks Cool
It says, “I’ve got style…and heart.” And when our “style” starts to get a little too close to our “heart,” our faith begins to become as skin-deep as the skinny jeans we like to wear.
It’s a TOM-wearing, book-and-Bible-reading, simple-living, guitar-playing, coffee-drinking, bare-footing, leaf-licking, justice-loving, short-term-missions-tripping Christianity.
And it looks really good.
It makes sure that everyone knows that we love homosexuals (which we really do) and have a real distaste for legalistic and hypocritical Christians (which we really do). It’s sexy Christianity.
It’s the guy who sets his stack of theological books on the wooden table in that hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, pulls out his MacBook Pro and begins to blog about the newest injustice right after tweeting about a great new band he came across.
It’s the girl who, after riding her road-bike to town, sits down for a cup of tea or chai and ruffles her Ugandan-made beanie so it sits just right on her head, then pulls out a trendy journal from her Urban-Outfitter-style backpack and begins to write about how badly she misses her YWAM DTS and about how cute she thinks book-reading-and-blogging boy is.
These believers are sensational people. Often, they’re well-versed in the Bible and give color to their churches. They support missions and anything that will reach orphans and afflicted people—if they’ve only got a couple bucks left in the bank. I could go on…but chances are you’ve got someone in mind.
Right now you might be thinking, “Wait, I thought that maybe this kind of Christianity is where our Christian leaders were encouraging us to go ..” And I admit that the whole idea might be a little unclear right now.
But this is what I want to communicate: that when Radical Christianity is popular, as it is becoming for my generation of believers, then we must ask ourselves: “Is the sense of abandon I have for Jesus costing me anything, or actually just making me more popular in the eyes of the people whom I would like to be perceived by as more popular?”
If at the end of the day I was kicked out of my family, homeless, friendless, moneyless and hated, would Jesus still be enough? Because sexy Christianity feels pretty good until someone throws a stone at you…or starts a thread of gossip about you or sends you hate mail or bullies your kid.
