“Proving once again that "evangelical theology" is increasingly an oxymoron, the ‘Dumb as a Box of Rocks’ School of Evangelism has just come up with a great new witnessing tool.”
(some of what follows paraphrases or quotes my comments on that page)
The ‘witnessing tool’ to which “Slice of Laodicea” refers is a t-shirt (go here for the article). Now, I’m no fan of “Christian t-shirts”. For one thing, t-shirts cannot be Christians, duh. Further, they are a cop-out and most have sub-standard theology (I’m being nice). Here’s my question, how exactly does one leap from an admittedly awful t-shirt to a slam against the totality of evangelical theology? That is quite a leap. Also, why focus only on the negative, while ignoring Craig Detweiler’s very biblical response --they will know who we are, and whose we are by our love? (A trait strangely missing in the phrase “Dumb as a Box of Rocks”)
Her response was to recommend David Wells' Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (which I may just put on the summer reading list) and then proceed to make additional slams against an entire generation of evangelicals, whom she describes as proud, foolish, and vulgar. Now, maybe it’s because I inhabit the strange world of Biola-Talbot, but my view of evangelicalism is very different. I am not denying the presence of misbelief and disbelief; I am merely saying that there are many in the ranks of evangelicalism that hold to, fight for, and live out a biblically-based Christian theology. Maybe we're a minority, I frankly do not know, for my life has been filled with theological studies for about seven years now. I do know that we are present and we are not silent.
Now, we all need critics, for they keep us thinking, help us refine our thoughts, and sound alarms when we get too near an edge. So, I do thank them for their efforts. On the other hand, criticism must be based on the actual position of the one critiqued, and frankly, the few ec detractors I’ve read have a real problem doing that. Such argumentation is not right and is not fair.
I linked onto you from Ingrid's slice of Laodocia. I am a teacher in Shiprock, NM. I vowed to myself that I wouldn't comment on her blog because I felt it was getting too negitive. I never liked labels, but I guess charasmatic evangelical pro-catholic might fit.
ReplyDeleteI'm responding about this whole Christian Tee Shirt thing. As my boys were growing up, most of their tee shirts were from a company called "living epistals"
we bought a bunch once a year at a Christian Festival in New York State called "Kingdom Bound". My sons attended the Christian School where I taught for 6 years and then we moved to Colorado. Soon after that we decided it was time for them to go "public". The one question I asked the principal was if there was a dress code. There was not. I said,"then there will be no trouble with them wearing Christian tee shirts to school" and there was no problem. They soon became known as the "Jesus Boys" but it was not a bad thing. Their tee shirts were a testamony and led to many good converstations and even a few "pagans" coming to church with us. Currently I am teaching in a public junior high on the Navajo Reservation. How I long to see a Christian tee shirt in the sea of black demonic images these kids adorn. I mentioned in my Children's Church class, that every one is wearing "Slipknot" and ICP tee shirts, but no Christian Tee Shirts. They asked "what is a Christian Tee Shirt?" If I ever get some money ahead, I think I'll go to the local Christian Book Store and buy a few. So what's the harm????
I agree that most often there is not harm... I have a few myself. What bothers me most is much of the marketing. Many of the shirts, wrist bands, hats, etc are overdone, poorly designed, and sometimes plain silly (not that silliness is all bad). I guess I wish they would hire "t-shirt writers" that knew a bit more about biblical truth. Also, in my circle, I see many that are just plain Jesus junk. Great thing about your sons, though; that's awesome.
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