Evaluating Culture

Don't quite know what else to call this post. It's going to be a label because Em and I are writing papers for class half affectionately called "Magnum Opus" or as Sister says "your best work yet".

The goal is to take something that the culture says is true, good and beautiful and prove that it's not.

I think it is vital that we, as youth ministers, really examine the world that we live in. Many of us, by now, have lived with "pop culture" being "the culture". Seriously: we all know things like John Hughes movies, punk rock. rap, MTV, reality tv, rubics cubes, xbox...we live in it and barely even recognize it.

Now, I'm not sure I can pitch it all out the window. I think my parents, in their own way, helped us kids discern what was worth bringing into our lives and what wasn't. ...even if sometimes it was that they wouldn't let us have it at all. But I'd have to say that most of Gen X and Gen Y do not have the ability to critique the culture we live in. I think most of us go along and don't even see it.

However, we not only have to recognize it's affects on our lives, but we have to teach the kids we work with how to evaluate what they are bringing into their world.

I'm sitting here writing this post and watching TV to evaluate commercials for my paper. I've tried to watch a variety of channels, knowing ads are different depending on the audience. Tonight's night is MTV. (Ok, so I watched Gilmore Girls on the CW first...I know, it fits into that genre Should I Really Be Watching This?). You don't even want to know what their own commercial is. You are going to die.

Pardon the digression here, but for starters, their slogan is "maturity is overrated". And...the commericals have to do with...mature content. But to the slogan: Doesn't this say so much?

So back to the evaluation of culture: We have to learn how to see it with a critical eye. The world isn't going to train us. We can't simply throw things out and just tell the kid "That's baaaaad". We have to be able to articulate HOW we, as Christians, can use the good in our culture, but how to be critical of what is not good in our culture.

How do we do that? Well, stay tuned for further posts as Em and I research and formulate our papers!