All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes (With a New Introduction / Redesign): Christians and Popular Culture

By Ken Myers

Every generation faces unique challenges.

The first-century Church had Caesar’s lions and the Colosseum. And, while it might seem like an unlikely comparison, the challenge of living with popular culture may well be as serious as persecution was for the saints of old.

Today we witness the tremendous power of pop culture to set the pace and priorities of our lives. We simply cannot afford to be indifferent about culture’s influence—nor can we escape it, glibly condemn it, or Christianize it. Cultural expert Ken Myers helps us to engage pop culture from a historical and experiential perspective so that we can live in it with wisdom and discernment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crossway Books
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781433516368

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

IMMEDIATELY YOURS

THE PLAGUE OF TERMINAL TRENDINESS

Let's begin by establishing your Pop Culture Quotient (PCQ). First, how many entertainment appliances are in your house? Count all the radios, televisions, VCRs, video cameras, cable-TV descrambler boxes, television antenna controllers, CD players, cassette decks, boom boxes, turntables, graphic equalizers, receivers, and computer game units. (Unless you find some very strange things amusing, don't include microwave ovens or blenders.) If you're of a certain age, you may have a lava-lamp in the attic. Count that too. If it's still in your living room, count it twice.

Now count up the number of magazines you subscribe to or read regularly, excluding academic journals founded before 1958 and denominational publications. Count People, Us, Self, and all supermarket tabloids twice. Count TV Guide three times if you actually read it. Count Sports Illustrated four times if you ordered it just to get the swimsuit issue. (Also talk to your pastor.) If you get Sports Illustrated and throw away the swimsuit issue without reading it, subtract three from your total. Count Spy twice if you laugh at it, three times if you read it regularly and don't laugh at all. Subtract three if you live within 300 miles of New York City and you've never heard of Spy.

Finally, calculate how many books you've read in the last ninety days that were romance novels, detective novels, horror novels, thrillers, westerns, or any bestseller not by Allan Bloom or Stephen Hawking.

Now add up the total for all three categories. Note that the PCQ does not attempt to calculate how much your life is actually influenced by the popular culture around you, but simply how many conduits of popular culture to which you are connected.

If you scored less than 10, your life is semimonastic, and you won't really enjoy or need to read this book. If you scored between 10 and 20, you probably have an average level of contact with popular culture, which means a much higher level than your parents and their parents had. If you scored between 20 and 35, you probably have a high susceptibility to terminal trendiness and chronic couch potatoism and ought to have your cholesterol level checked. If your score was over 35, you should consider checking into the Faith Popcorn Clinic for the Severely Overacculturated or a similar institution. But first, read this

Reviews for All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes (With a New Introduction / Redesign)

[howhop · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This ranks as my favourite book on the subject of Christians and Culture. While maintaining a thoroughly biblical worldview, Myers departs from the naive applications of the cultural mandate which is so often the weakness of many worldview thinkers today. While charging Christians to act as leaven in the culture, and to propagate the gospel through spiritual means, he warns that the forms of popular culture inherently cancel whatever Christian content we may try to pour into them. Popular culture must be viewed in the same manner as fast food -- something to be enjoyed at times, but with an awareness of the dangers posed by overconsumption and improper use. His analysis of popular culture's historical and sociological roots should be considered by all who seek a better understanding of this subject which is so fraught with tensions between obligation and application. I highly reccommend this book!

[wyclif-371215 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slightly dated but very helpful C.S. Lewis-ish take on Christians in pop culture.