Friday, January 29, 2010

emerging. . . "hip"ocrisy (part 1)

This is something that really disturbs me. It's fairly obvious that the younger generation of Evangelicals is changing. . . at least their rhetoric. Now, many young Evangelicals will list poverty and AIDS on their list of social concerns along with abortion and gay marriage. On the surface, this would seem to be a positive development. However, I can think of a very appropriate cliche that should be applied to these developments: "Actions speak louder than words."

Somehow, I'm missing the action. Those Evangelicals that are most outspoken about issues such as poverty seem to live a lifestyle diametrically opposed to their values. They are the Evangelicals that choose Starbucks over Eight O'Clock Coffee, Grey Goose over Smirnoff, Hollister over Old Navy, etc. etc.

There's no doubt that these Evangelicals are hipper than the older brand of Evangelicals. In fact, a desire to be hip seems like it just might be more of the reason for the new rhetoric rather than actual concern about issues such as poverty.

To be continued. . . (when I don't have a test on the nervous system to worry about. ugh!)

2 comments:

  1. What disturbed me here was finding out that the Evangelicals have only recently started talking about poverty, let alone doing anything about it. In my old church, it came up in services almost as frequently as God did. Then we got in our Lexuses and dove home. The "hip"ocrisy is spreading!

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  2. Yeah, it is disturbing that social justice has only recently become an issue in Evangelical circles. Don't get me wrong I'm glad that there is now some attention paid to issues like poverty etc. However, let's see some action!

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