Written by: gfesadmin on March 7, 2013

 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.(Rom 12:12 NIV).  This verse has constantly been on my mind during the past few days.  Was Christianity meant to be a counter culture?  Was it meant to continue and remain so always?  These questions become more critical for me after reading The Rebel Sell: Why The Culture can’t Be Jammed.  It is indeed quite a thought provoking and challenging book.  Far from being a comprehensive overview of the subject, it is written more to get the reader to think.  Counter culture meant to be anti-capitalistic in the modern era will no longer feel comfortable.

The authors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter cite Michael Moore, Adbusters magazine, Naomi Klein, the Women’s movements, Hippies and basically any group that may carry with it the flavour of radicalism.   They argue that it is difficult for any counter culture movement to succeed and therefore they do not pose a threat to the system.   This is the central theme of the Rebel Sell.  Counter culture eventually becomes a victim of its own arch-rival.

Francis Schaeffer in his book The Great Evangelical Disaster makes a similar observation. He talks about the many young people who he came into contact with in large numbers during the 1960s.  He says they wore the mark of rebels and that was the torn blue jeans.  However, they did not notice that they were conforming to a pattern as worn out blue jeans had become the symbol of rebellion and the mark of accommodation and perhaps even provided a particular status. Schaeffer cautions Christians against the  ‘blue jean mentality’ which is the mistake of thinking that we are different when  in actuality we are only falling into accepted norms and standards of the world around us. CITATION Dun13 l 1033  (Dunagan n.d.)

John Stott titled the sermon on the mount the Christian Counter Culture.  I tend to lean to his teaching that the difference in the life style of the followers of Christ must manifest itself always.  There certainly is a Christian value-system, a certain devotion to Jesus Christ,  a biblical attitude to money, Christian ethical standards and norms(Stott pp. 47-48). These must be lived out and evidenced in a Christian’s life. Schaeffer says, “The failure of the evangelical world to take a clear and distinctively biblical stand on the crucial issues of the day can only be seen as a failure to live under the full authority of God’s Word in the full spectrum of life” (p. 143).  CITATION Dun13 l 1033  (Dunagan n.d.) This is quite important to me in the pluralistic context in which I live and work and one in which the Church is growing.  I find myself asking:

If Christianity was meant to be a counter culture, what kind should it be and what results must be expected and achieved?

What lessons can I learn from the past?

What pitfalls must I avoid as I lead?

Is there something I am missing?

 BIBLIOGRAPHY  l 1033

Dunagan, Mark. Christian Counter Culture. http://www.ch-of-christ.beaverton.or.us/Counter_Culture_1.htm (accessed March 7, 2013).

Heath, Joseph, and Andrew Potter. The Rebel Sell: How the Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture. Chichester: Capstone Publishing Ltd., 2005

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