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A La Carte (10/26)
- 10/26/10
- 20
Rarely do I see a clearer manifestation of the pathetic nature of our culture than at Halloween. I’m all for having the kids dress up to go and collect candy. But yesterday I stepped into a store and noticed that the section for adult costumes was bigger than the section for kid’s costumes. Two words: grow up! The men’s costumes had some variety; the women’s costumes appeared to come in two varieties, witch and prostitute (and, of course, the ever-popular witch-prostitute). Again, it’s time to grow up. Let the kids have their fun and leave the adults out of it.
Contend for the Faith - Mounce talks about what it means for Jude to contend for the faith. “Jude is telling the church that it is time to take the kids' gloves off and duke it out. This is not the time for caution and reserve. It is war. Whenever I read Jude I think of John Piper's admonitions to accept a war-time life style. It is war, and the battle is both within and without the church. For Jude and many churches, the fieriest battle lie within.”
In Christ Alone - The mega-popular band Owl City has recorded a rendition of “In Christ Alone.” (Owl City is a band that gets a lot of mainstream play) This must be the 300th cover of that song, at least. I’m a bit bummed that he left out the second verse, without which the song is quite a lot weaker. Still, check the comments on his blog and you can see the kind of ministry this guy has.
A Lost Loved One - Randy Alcorn gives a wise answer to this question: “How would you respond and minister to unsaved friends or family (or even strangers) who have lost a loved one and assume their lost loved one is in Heaven, even though that person clearly did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ?”
Gay-Friendly Sesame Street - Here’s yet another controversy about Sesame Street (I find it hard to believe that the show still exists). “Sesame Workshop says it’s not out to appeal to a gay audience but with such recent actions as a ‘True Blood’ parody, inviting openly gay guests like Wanda Sykes, and an interesting tweet by Bert, some are feeling the love.”
Same Sex Relationships - Speaking of which, a new study finds that 9.3% of teens has had a sexual experience with a member of the same sex. “Carlat said the increase in teens with same-sex partners can be explained in part by cultural shifts in the last decade, including the legalization of same-sex marriages and unions in some states and the spike in celebrities talking about same-sex encounters. He pointed to Katy Perry’s hit song ‘I Kissed a Girl’ as being a ‘watershed moment.’”
O Church Arise - I enjoyed this rendition of Getty/Townend’s “O Church Arise”:
A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. —C.H. Spurgeon
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (20)
I wonder if your command to “grow up” is due to the fact that you have children to interact with and act silly with (if you do ever act silly). (I suppose the opposite could be true: maybe you feel that you always have to act as an adult because you are raising children.) For adults who are not around children, Halloween might be the one time when they can pretend to be someone else and act silly. The costumes for women do say something about the perception of women in our culture, and unfortunately it’s not good.
An excellent point about adults and Halloween.
Halloween is one time when we as a culture are invited to go out an meet neighbors, spend time on our street outside and have fun. As Christians I think we should be embracing the concept. We don’t have to embrace the excesses of it, and we can make our own costumes if you don’t like the choices. But telling people to “grow up” just is another example of Christians condemning people for having fun. We should look for ways to encourage people to have fun, not discourage them.
(And by the way I think as church leaders we should stop encouraging people to go to church Fall Festivals and to actually spend time with their neighbors.)
Evangelicals tend not to think of sinful activities in terms of the demonic and “seducing spirits,” but as someone who once worked for a ministry that went into the homosexual community to reach people, I can tell you that there’s a demonic spirit attached to that sexual sin.
We need to get more serious about confronting the demonic and walking in the authority Christ won for us. I think too many of us have had bad experiences with people who find demons lurking behind every corner and who practice bizarre forms of “spiritual warfare,” but the reality is still there. We can ignore it, but that will only make things worse. Unless we get serious about the battle, I think more Christian parents will be sadly surprised when one of their own children declares his or her own homosexuality.
Adam,Where do we draw the line between participating in culture and separating ourselves from it? I don’t believe Tim is suggesting that Christians not dress up or be involved with their non-believer neighbors. Something I think we have a lack of context for in our desire to “reach” others for Christ is succumbing to compromise with the world. In Ephesus, there were so many people becoming Christians that the economy was impacted! People stopped participating in things that were of their former life.
Funny that your statement, “telling people to “grow up” just is another example of Christians condemning people for having fun” shows no desire for honoring God, just that we as Christians should have the right to have fun. Tim didn’t say not to have fun, he simply pointed to the fact that dressing up and pretending to be something is a child’s game. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” He is using this as an example of growing in the Lord but growing in the Lord encompasses much more than just “spiritual” matters.
Tim,just wanted to let you know, in case i’m not the only one in my case. Your ” la carte” link in my rss reader only displayed about half of your links (I was aware of the others because of your links on FB).If the problem is on my side, sorry to bother you.
He told people to “go up” which I and a couple others took to mean “adults do not do halloween”. Maybe I mis-understood his intention.
I think there is a line for participation and separation. But it is not in the day, but the activities within the day. Do I think it is appropriate to host a Halloween party where everyone gets drunk? No. Do I think it is appropriate for you to actively try to go out and meet people in your neighborhood. Yes. That is what I suggested. If we spend our time separated, then we spend out time away from the people that we are commanded to reach.
As to the “growing up”. I guess we have to disagree. I think that part of being an adult is understanding that it is good and appropriate to have fun. Tim thinks that adults dressing up is childish. I and a lot of other people think adults dressing up is (or at least can be) fun. I said nothing about not honoring God while we do it. I said we should not condemn people for having fun. I think it is quite possible, and very much desirable, to have fun in ways that honor God. I think that God is honored when we spend time with people that he loves.
Adam,
I can’t speak for Tim on whether he thinks that it is immature for adults to dress up.
I agree with what you said, “it is not in the day, but the activities within the day.” That is a good distinction. I wonder though, if our brothers and sisters in other countries still celebrate holidays and traditions they once did before Christ. I know that context is extremely important but still a question that I ask myself.
As to whether or not something is fun or not is not an issue. Maturity is the issue. Would you not agree that there were things you thought were fun or funny when you were younger and less mature? I agree that God is honored and glorified when we enjoy fellowship with others…the New Testament gives us examples of the joy the believers experienced having life together. I do not believe the Lord wants us to be stoic and not to enjoy life. I think however, we often are deceived into a lifestyle where we desire to be relevant as opposed to holy. This of course reaches into the realm of Christian freedom and so we need to be innocent as doves and wise as serpents.
Sorry, Tim. Your criticism of Adam (Owl City) is unfounded and unnecessary. An artist with worldwide credibility and cultural influence in the lives of millions of people records and shares a song that speaks explicitly of Christ’s divinity, sacrifice, mercy, love, hope, etc etc etc and you find a way to criticize him? Unjustified.
This may be the 300th cover version that YOU have heard but read the comments on his post and you will see that many, many people are hearing that song (and perhaps hearing about Christ in an honest way) for the very first time.
Artists like Adam need to be cheered on by people like you, not nit-picked.
It may not be categorically “immature to dress up” (indeed, I think it is not) but I do believe that Tim has a point that the dressing-up behavior you see actually is a function of immaturity.
That is, to a great extent, people have not decided to dress up on some calm assessment of what is an enjoyable activity, but because they just want to keep on partying like they did when they were kids, not seeing (or not caring) that there is a degree to which we ought to “leave behind childish things.”
Do I know this to be the case in every situation? Of course not. It *isn’t* the case in every situation. But it doesn’t take a lot of looking around at western culture to conclude that not-growing-up is endemic, so it only stands to reason that ever more adults are pursuing an activity that is identified with childhood *because* they still with to identify with childhood.
I agree maturity is an issue. But maturity should allow for others to have fun in ways that we do not. Maturity does not mean that running around and playing like a child is inappropriate, especially when we are with children. I think in this case, Halloween is still mostly a child’s holiday. And in fact much of the adult costumes are indications of adults trying to play with their children, not just watching children and not participating with them.
I know there are many adult Halloween parties. But most of what we would not like at those parties would happen at a party whether it was dress up or not. The act of dressing up is I think is rarely at the root of what is wrong with a particular party. So when we condemn dressing up (which is what I took Tim to mean, and again, if I am wrong on this point I apologize) we are not really condemning inappropriate behavior, but either the attempts at having fun or the actual day of Halloween.
I am all for calling out Christians for appropriate behavior, but we need to call them out for the actually bad behavior, not the other things that we associate with bad behavior, but are not actually bad in and of themselves. And I don’t think this has anything to do with relevance. Jesus was around people. If we hole up and are only around Christian we have violated the first basic requirement for following the Great Commission. Jesus was holy, while at the same time being called a drunkard and carouser.
The difference between maturity and immaturity is that maturity knows when it’s okay to act silly and when it’s not.
Glowering, pinch-faced Christians who can’t cut loose now and then are some of the most poisonous people on the planet. God have mercy on the person who can’t act silly at a wedding when the DJ puts on “YMCA” or “The Chicken Dance.”
Chris,
Was Tim’s comment really that much of a criticism? When he pointed out that there are already “300” covers of the song, I don’t think he was being overtly negative, just saying that the song has already been covered a lot (which is true). But if he didn’t think the Owl City cover was worth listening to, he wouldn’t have linked to it! And Tim’s last line is a clear indication of his appreciation for the ministry that Owl City has … I guess I just don’t see where you are coming from and, frankly, found your comment a bit out of place.
And anyone who loves “In Christ Alone” SHOULD be “bummed” when the second verse is left out. Not only is it an extremely powerful verse in its own right, but leaving it out introduces a logical disjunction into the song. It’s clear that Townend/Getty intend for each verse to lead into the one following, so if one is removed, you lose the progression.
In the Owl City cover, you go from “Here in the love of Christ I stand” to “There in the ground His body lay.” Well, how did His body get there in the ground? We don’t know, because the second verse - portraying His death - is left out. Again, it introduces a disjunction that I am sure would disappoint the original writers of the song.
We should be thankful for the good that Adam is doing, and the people he is reaching by covering a song like this. Nevertheless, the fact that people are being blessed by the cover doesn’t make it above criticism.
Garrett
Sorry, Tim. Your criticism of Adam (Owl City) is unfounded and unnecessary. An artist with worldwide credibility and cultural influence in the lives of millions of people records and shares a song that speaks explicitly of Christ's divinity, sacrifice, mercy, love, hope, etc etc etc and you find a way to criticize him? Unjustified.
Is it a criticism to say that I’m bummed that he left out a critical verse? I don’t think that’s criticism. Just a fact. He left out the best verse!
I agree Tim . That verse is the pivotal verse and to leave it out weakens the rest of the song. Those verses point to the incarnation and vicarious penal substitution work of Christ . I just wonder where the artist stands on that doctrine.
This is not an accusation. There may be no correlation at all. But leaving out that verse does remind me of the article you posted Friday in which Canon Davies expressed his discomfort with singing about the propitiatory work of Christ because he didn’t believe it.
I know I’m writing from a different culture to you Tim and most of your readers but I cannot get my heard around how and why any Christian would want to mark and be involved in a festival that, at the heart, celebrates occult matters. I don’t believe Christians should be involved in any Halloween activity; not even as a way to get to know and reach their neighbours. This isn’t a childish activity, it’s much worse than that. It’s one that trivialises the things of darkness.
Why not celebrate the fact that a mainstream artist with a global platform has decided to turn the focus of his audience toward Christ? Hold this up as an example for Christian artists to follow.
I agree with you, but it’s not always easy to know exactly where that line is. Christians should be able to have fun, just like anyone else, in fact, I would argue, even more so.
By the way, the song YMCA is about men picking up other men at the YMCA - is this what Christians should be singing about?
I prefer singing the theme from Gilligan’s Island.
Isn’t the YMCA song a good example of Paul’s verses about eating what is put before you without concern over whether it was sacrificed to idols? There is a fun overlying theme to the song, it has fairly innocuous cultural meaning and is both seen as a kid’s song to have fun with as well as a song about 70s gay culture. If you are in a room and they are playing it, do you need to ask everyone in the room how they primarily view the song to know whether you should participate or not?
I would say a better response is to look at the hosts, if they are having fun and participating, then go participate and have fun with the crowd. But if you conscious says you cannot, then do not.