Being, \u201ccounter-cultural\u201d is a buzz-word thrown around in fundamentalist\/evangelical circles\u2013many circles in fact.\u00a0 Or, it was when I was growing up in that world.\u00a0 Be different.\u00a0 Don\u2019t follow the crowd.\u00a0 Lead.\u00a0 There was almost a militancy to the idea. \u201cStand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross\u2026\u201d\u00a0 You get the picture.<\/p>\n
In American culture, we love the idea of the rebel.\u00a0 Think American Revolution and down the road a bit, a \u201cJohnny Rebel.\u201d\u00a0 Also, think James Dean and \u201cRebel Without a Cause.\u201d\u00a0 Think Rambo.\u00a0 Think Top Gun<\/em> and, \u201cMaverick.\u201d\u00a0 We love to think that everyone else is a mindless follower of the crowd, a lemming, while we alone stand back as the rest plunge over the cliff.<\/p>\n The bunker mentality in fundamentalism\/evangelicalism, caused by a combination of end-times views and a truncated view of culture, when mixed with this rebel strain in our national story, lends an added impetus and strength to this notion of being, \u201ccounter-cultural.\u201d\u00a0 The people in that world like to believe they are swimming against<\/em> the stream.<\/p>\n However, the idea that American fundamentalism\/evangelicalism is, \u201ccounter-cultural\u201d may be one of the most incredible and self-deceptive myths in recent memory.\u00a0 It is something believed without a shred of evidence; we might compare it to believing we didn\u2019t land on the moon or that the earth is flat.<\/p>\n The reason it is self-deceptive, and the reason it not only doesn\u2019t have any influence on the culture, but instead reinforces it, is because it is<\/em> the religious expression of that very culture.\u00a0 Fundamentalism\/evangelicalism\u2019s only challenge to the culture is to recognize their god, their view of Christianity, morality, and the Bible.<\/p>\n In other words, they are cool with pretty much everything else about the culture as far as the (classic)-liberal, western, democratic, capitalist, militarist, and purely American aspect to that culture\/civilization\/empire.\u00a0 They may quibble here and there with certain aspects of it, but it\u2019s more about disliking the color of the drapes and carpet\u2014the house however, the structure, in their view, is fine.<\/p>\n What they want is for that culture\/civilization\/empire to be, \u201cChristian\u201d in how they understand that term and in what they think it would then mean for a culture to reflect such.\u00a0 Their beef is that the culture was, \u201cstolen\u201d (false) from them, made to be secular (false), and that is the only reason they are upset.<\/p>\n For them, being, \u201ccounter-cultural\u201d means trying to shame the, \u201csecular,\u201d or prove they are, \u201cbetter,\u201d than the secular by living piously: no drinking, smoking, profanity, (dancing?), R-rated movies, while adding alternative, \u201cclean\u201d contemporary music, movies, books, and television.\u00a0 Wow, that\u2019ll show \u2018em\u2014eat that<\/em> secular culture.<\/p>\n Thus, counter-cultural turns out to be the exact same culture, just scrubbed clean.\u00a0 It is the exact same culture, just one with a religious gloss and one that, frankly, doesn\u2019t seem to want a culture much different from what other religious fundamentalists want.\u00a0 In their minds, being, \u201ccounter-cultural\u201d just sort of means returning to 1950, which tells us much regarding what they think of people of color, women, sexuality, and difference in general.<\/p>\n A truly counter-cultural attempt would mean bringing everything into question and under judgement\u2014starting with ourselves.\u00a0 It would mean challenging the reigning paradigm of capitalism, nationalism, patriarchy, consumerism, liberal democracy, militarism, and the American myth.\u00a0 It would mean addressing, deeply, the history of racism, sexism, and violence at the heart of the American experiment.<\/p>\n It would mean challenging the modern political Left and Right, both the Democrat and Republican parties, and the entire political structure, especially in their deep relation to, and reliance upon, corporate and wealthy donor money.\u00a0 It would mean challenging both religious fundamentalism and secular, atheistic, scientism, which means challenging fundamentalism in general\u2014since they both are the result of the same sensibility and history.<\/p>\n It would mean taking the Sermon on the Mount seriously, not only personally, but as a community.\u00a0 It would mean actually loving our enemies and pursuing peace, even if it meant losing or not getting our way.\u00a0 It would mean sharing our resources in radical ways that far surpass what is possible through free markets, state taxation or redistribution.\u00a0 It would mean living in harmony with the environment (creation), even if that meant a loss of material wealth, cheap goods, and personal convenience.<\/p>\n It would mean a radical openness to the, \u201cother,\u201d the stranger, and those different from ourselves, to the extent we placed their needs above our own.\u00a0 It would mean giving up an, \u201cAmerica First\u201d or a Christianity-first, or a, my-tribe-first mentality.\u00a0 It would mean taking up a, the first will be last and the last first<\/em> mentality instead, where we are willing to give up our place in the world if it means others might thrive, flourish, and be saved.<\/p>\n Utopian? Unrealistic? Naive? Too radical? Probably.\u00a0 Do I live like this?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Does that change anything I\u2019ve written?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 Most of us know what the ethical thing to do is, we just don\u2019t do it.\u00a0 I think a true counter-culturalism would need to encompass the above to be true to the Christian narrative and faith.<\/p>\n There is a deep love, an extravagant giving away of one\u2019s self, at the heart of the Christian faith, that is far more radical than anything we can imagine.\u00a0 Most western cultures after 400 A.D. have been attempts to avoid that radical nature, while doing their best to pay lip service to it.\u00a0 It\u2019s what helps us sleep at night.<\/p>\n So yeah, that term you keep throwing around, \u201ccounter-cultural\u201d\u2014I don\u2019t think it means what you think it means.<\/p>\n