All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Introduction Summary
I’m going to weave together some quotes, paraphrases, and connections from the introduction to condense Myer’s thesis, defense, and application.
The problem:
“I believe that the challenge of living with popular culture may well be as serious for modern Christians as persecution and plagues were for the saints of earlier eras.”
It is 1) an undetectable rather than violent enemy, 2) physical affliction is easy to identify as a trial, while the “erosion of character,” “spoiling of innocent pleasures,” and “cheapening of life,” takes us unawares.
“It is possible to develop a taste for instant everything. [...] [P]opular culture encourages a mood of expecting everything to be immediate, a mood that deters greater depth and breadth in other areas of our lives.”
“The forms [mediums] of our popular culture [commercial television, pop rock music, music videos, gossip magazines] may well have a more significant effect on our perceptions than the content.” These forms are immediate and emotional .
The proper response:
“Christian concern about popular culture should be as much about the sensibilities it encourages as about its content.” “But its triviality, while making it seem innocuous, also enables it to be extremely pervasive, and that is its most toxic quality.” “It requires a great effort not to be mastered by it [the culture that pervades our lives and all our experiences, that provides the entire set and background and that sets the priorities and agendas and pace of our lives]. “Modern American popular culture, like the meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 10, is a part of the created order, part of the earth that is the Lord’s, and thus something capable of bringing innocent pleasure to believers. But not everything that is permissible is constructive.” In fact, its attributes are usually “obstacles to enjoying the best of human experience.”
Types of culture:
Popular culture does not require time, talent, experience, or knowledge. It is immediately accessible and demands nothing from its audience.
Folk and high culture require discipline, appreciation, and submission to tradition. They expect a response and demand engaged attention.
The church should provide a “culture of transcendence.” “This would not mean escaping from the world. It would require refusing to conform to its ways, not only when they are evil, but when they are not beneficial or constructive.”
Myer’s goal:
“The point is not to change the world, but to understand it.”
“My interest in culture is finally an interest in how to be obedient to God and to glorify Him.”
“I hope this book provides some wisdom to encourage the discernment necessary for such a worthy task [creating a culture of transcendence].”
Nice. Every book club needs someone who keeps everyone else from flying away into the void. ;)