"Mass mentality"
Craig Thompson's Blankets, pg 106-107
I attended the Global Day of Prayer held at Kallang and as much as it was an especial mark for Pentecost Sunday, the event felt more like National Day Parade For Christians. Of course I'm overtly cynical about celebrations, as much as I love them - but why did I find Reverend Kong's "Clap for God! Louder!" as pathetically crowd-drumming as Dreamgirls' Jimmy Early/Eddie Murphy dropping his pants on stage? I think people find it easy to experience religious ecstasy through music, so it's a cop-out way of feeling good about yourself, your participation in becoming one with the crowd. So City-Harvest-man was, logically speaking, taking the cheap route.
As much as I emphasize the inherent selfishness of Craig Thompson's argument, which I always felt was the reason for his collapse of faith, his disillusion about the disparity between himself and Christian peers is very real. Perhaps he felt the falsity of being bound to others he couldn't love in those moments. But I would argue that clamming up is to assume superior understanding and status as 'the coolest person in the room'.
"Coolness might help in your negotiation with people through the world, maybe, but it is impossible to meet God with sunglasses on. It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw. That's the connection with great music and great art, and that is why it's uncomfortable, that is why cool is the enemy of it, because that's the other reason you wanted to join a band: you wanted to do the cool thing."
To be unashamed of the Gospel is to be vulnerable. To be vulnerable is to get along with everyone. If you are vulnerable you cannot be cool. Sometimes... more than anything else... cool feels like the most important thing in the world. But you're supposed to be something else... always something else. And it won't be a parade either, it might be just one person clapping. But what do you need besides God's applause? # posted by s. ning @ 9:36 AM
