Can you be “cool” and be into Jesus? At least one person thinks not:
Coolness is heretical. Or at least the pursuit of it is. This is because an inverse relationship exists between our attempts at being cool and our faith in Jesus Christ. The one struts, confident in his ability to do and say all the right things. The other limps, just as confident in his ineptitude, his missed cues and bad timing.
A little later:
We continually face a choice: will we seek to establish ourselves by being cool, or we trust that God has established us in Christ? It really is that simple. In John 12, we learn that there are a group of synagogue leaders who were believing Jesus, but they stayed quiet, as they loved the approval of people rather than that of God. Again, not a question of degrees. It’s an either-or. In Christ, God has revealed his death-defying love for sinners. When I prefer to be cool, I nonchalantly let him know that I’d prefer the love of a fickle mass of opinion jockeys instead.
it is a terrific and utterly thought-provoking essay. There is so much with which I disagree. But in the interest of being argumentative, I want to pick on one thing.
If I’m reading it correctly, coolness “struts” while our faith “limps, just as confident in his ineptitude….” I’m not sure I’m with the author here. I understand, I think, what he is getting at… faith has humility. But I also think that one of the problems many (like me) have (among the many problems) with following Jesus (or letting him be with us) is the lack of confidence in Jesus’ coolness.
Jesus wasn’t lame. Jesus wasn’t a nerd. Jesus partied with hookers and tax collectors and lots of unsavory folks. Are we to believe they would have wanted to hang with him if they thought him a thorough dork?
The argument against me – and perhaps the more compelling argument – is that Jesus’ love was so powerful, so magnetic, that it crashed through everyone’s heart. That he didn’t have to be cool because his depth and his love destroyed the need for such things.
That is certainly true.
But I can’t help but think that part of what people saw in Jesus was a certain coolness. I can’t help but wonder if there were those at the time who copied how he walked or how he groomed or his slang sayings in hopes of possessing his coolness?
This is the mark of a great essay – it makes you think.
posted October 8, 2007 at 4:45 pm
It’s an interesting case from both sides. From another angle, though, the more Christianity is rewarding in this world, the worse the witness ends up being. This is just an opinion, but when, as recently, there have been a lot of rewards for calling yourself Christian, I tend to see fish on cars and confessions by politicians, criminals and businessfolk as unlikely to be sincere. When Christians were persecuted (no, we aren’t) anyone willing to call themselves Christians had to be of strong faith. So I’m not sure I think you can or can’t be cool and follow Jesus but I do think you can’t evangelize as well when cool.
Not that I’ve lost any sleep worrying about it. (he says, laconically.)
posted October 8, 2007 at 6:00 pm
“Jesus wasn’t a nerd. Jesus partied with hookers and tax collectors and lots of unsavory folks. Are we to believe they would have wanted to hang with him if they thought him a thorough dork?”
I disagree. I think Jesus was always sitting with the weird kids at the proverbial 1st-century Palestine lunch table. Tax collectors? They’re not cool. And Jesus was called out by Dobsonites– no, sorry, Pharisees– for palling around with prostitutes because they were outcasts, like Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club, not because Jesus was having too rockin’ a time with them.
As to the larger question, I don’t see why you can’t. Faith is not incongruous with confidence, nor with irony.
Also, it’s worth noting that Nick Lowe called one of his albums “The Jesus of Cool,” but it was released under a different name in the US.
posted October 8, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Love it Elvis – the weird kids at the proverbial 1st -Century Palestine lunch table.
I’ve always referred to the disciples prior to the resurrection as the “Larry, Moe and Curly” of their time. Jesus picked the strange in many ways. The transformation in them after the Resurrection – was not one of “cool”, but one of letting go. They quit needing to be part of the crowd that would be accepted by power and principalities. So, pick your place – Larry, Moe, Curley, the weird girl with the piercings and tatoos? All were transformed. And continue to be. You can’t be transformed if you have to be the “Fonz”. You stay there in that leather jacket and just don’t move.
posted October 8, 2007 at 9:21 pm
The truly cool people are not the ones who worry about being cool. If you have to try to be cool, you’re not, at least in my world — which I share with a truly cool Yashua.
posted October 10, 2007 at 3:42 am
what in the world re u guys talkin about maybe he would (jesus) would of been cool if he came now and in the face of global warmi g declared nudist colonies to be the new way of conducting societies. considering its so damn hot there is no need for clothes get tit!>!? and he gave evryone a hi five and the saints a special secret handshake