Exploring Christian pop culture with Danial Radosh

Posted by admin on Oct 1, 2008 in Featured Articles | 0 comments

Daniel Radosh probably knows more about Evangelical pop culture than you do. He’s been to Holy land theme parks, Christian wrestling shows, seen Bibleman – the evangelical superhero – live, and taken a tour through a hell house. But here’s the catch: he’s not a Christian. He’s a professing Jew living in Brooklyn. Prompted by his experiences at a Christian music festival with his young sister-in-law, where music was judged on how much the bands prayed rather than how talented they were, Radosh, a freelance writer and editor at The Week, uses his outside perspective to explore the crazy and sometimes surprising world of Christian subculture. His book Rapture Ready: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture (available in the TWU library), retells his findings with honesty and humour, often challenging the stereotypes of the culture while giving thoughtful critique. Though not necessarily written for Christians, Radosh’s insights are undoubtedly valuable for evangelicals serious about the implications of their pop culture’s presence in North America. I spoke with Radosh about what motivated his journey, the people he met, and which parts of the “parallel universe” are worthwhile.

MH: Do you have any previous experiences with Christianity that influenced your presuppositions about the subculture?

DR: I have a lot of Christian friends, but not much experience with Christian culture…my [Christian] friends are not really into that. Like, there’s only one Christian bookstore in New York City, and no one knows about it. I really wanted to see how important [evangelical subculture] was in shaping lives. I know for myself, pop culture really does help me understand the world, then I realized there was this other part of pop culture I was shaking off.

MH: What about your own Jewish heritage? In the book, you seem to particularly point out when Christianity offends or re-appropriates Jewish culture. Did you feel like your beliefs influenced your journey?

DR: I have rarely felt more Jewish than I did spending time in the Christian subculture, but I don’t feel like I went into it with a Jewish lens. A lot of this Christian subculture touches on things that I’m familiar with, but it’s so different than my experiences with it. For example, in Jewish culture the shofar is blown to announce Rosh Hashanah. The New Holy Land in Arkansas blows shofar to announce that the theme park is open.

MH: A lot of Christians create sub-par things to evangelize, but most seem to do it with such sincerity. Did you find that? Were there many people who seemed insincere and were just in it for the market?

DR: I found a lot of Christians who were very suspicious of that, saying, “These people are in it for the money.” I found there were more suspicious of it than it actually being the case, though I think it definitely happens. More typical, there were people who had more genuinely believed that what they considered to be ministry was perfectly in tune with maximizing profit…I think they genuinely believe that they are doing God’s work, and doing it God’s way allowed them to make awful crap. They sincerely believe that this is a ministry they are engaged in.

MH: You retell in Rapture Ready that [Christian author] Frank Peretti describes evangelicals that can’t separate Christianity from its subculture as “little Pat Robertsons.” Did you find many non-little-Pat-Robertsons?

DR: One of the biggest surprises was how many Christians were critical in a very smart way of this culture, even if they participated in it. That was a big and interesting surprise to me. The kind of Christian culture and art I began to admire and appreciate on a personal level was stuff not trying to sell Jesus, but trying to explore what it means to be a Christian, and live a Christian life. This usually happened with music – this makes the gatekeepers in Christianity nervous, because some artists aren’t willing to stay “in line,” and are willing to express doubt… that’s a bigger draw to me, because they’re honest.

Artists like mewithoutYou, Over the Rhine, the 77s – they’re very serious about their faith, and have beliefs that aren’t the same as mine, but I can enjoy them just like I can enjoy Johnny Cash, or U2, or Bob Marley without being a Rastafarian.
That’s why I find Flyleaf and Switchfoot boring because their expressions of faith are bland; it doesn’t sound real.

MH: Did you find there was any distinct difference between Christians who were merely cultural and “actual” Christians?

DR: A lot of Christians who have latched onto this culture are critical of this culture. I actually think it’s not possible for American evangelicals to separate themselves from evangelical pop culture as starkly as they want to believe. If someone says they’re not part of the culture, I ask, how may Bibles do they own? The average Christian household owns 10 bibles, and the reason you have those is because marketers have spent money getting you to buy all the different versions. I don’t see anything wrong with that – I’m pro-pop culture, I’m pro-capitalism. It’s hard for people to see themselves really are wrapped up in this world.
There are certainly Christians who don’t participate as much in the culture, and they tend to be more serious about their faith in some way. Those active [in evangelical subculture] are serious about their faith, but it leads them to believe it’s buying the right products.

But I try to make clear a lot of Christians haven’t encountered a lot of this stuff

The key framework I used for understanding Christian pop culture was the ideas of

, who divides Christian rock into three categories – that apply to all pop culture in a way. They either want to separate [be completely removed from secular culture, with an obvious Christian message], integrate [blend in with mainstream culture], or be transformational. Transformational is based on the assumption that art doesn’t need a reason to exist…that you’re creating without the pragmatic approach.

Take for example Guitar Praise: it’s going to be bought by a lot of parents not allowing children to play Guitar Hero, and on the other side, it wouldn’t surprise me if Guitar Hero said “we don’t want Christian music because we want our product to be cool,” which leaves both sides working against each other to keep separated. I think that’s unhealthy. With integrational, you kind of end up with everything a little watered down, a little bland. The stuff I’d pay attention to, Christian or not, would be the transformational artists. It’s gotten harder to convince kids that the crap on Christian radio is just as good as mainstream. I think Christians are starting to seek out more artists that are clearly using a Christian worldview.

MH: We talk about worldviews a lot in our university.

DR: Worldview is one of those things Christians don’t really realize is Christianeze – most Americans never use that phrase.
If you’re a Christian you don’t even consider that that phrase sounds odd. In an ironic way, it’s accomplished people to think in the opposite way: wanted to make people think about the assumptions of what they believe, but now it’s become a buzzword that you can use to express something without really thinking about it.

MH: So, how many times were you prayed for?

Not that often. Bibleman was one of the few people who directly said, “Can I pray for you?” A few times I was part of an event, and because I was there, they included me in the prayer. I wasn’t really expecting that so much; I wasn’t really watching for it.

I was expecting to be witnessed to a lot, which was in different ways than I expected. Only a few times I really got the hard sell…then there was the next level down, when I’d be having a normal conversation, then realize the person I was talking to was weaving in a lot of Bible verses. I found it a little amusing and kind of sad, because I thought I was just having a conversation, and the person thought they were being subtle…I almost respected more the people who [gave me the hard sell] and didn’t have the same level of disappointment of being seen as a project.

A level I found more interesting was the idea of lifestyle witnessing. I hadn’t heard of it before…it was people who never would have considered talking me into Christianity, but lived the way [they were] living in part to express to the world why they’re a Christian. I didn’t find it compelling to become a Christian, but I did find it made me think very highly of Christians themselves. I gained insight into what it means to be a Christian from those folks.

MH: How many times did you sing corporately?

DR: Well I don’t know the words. It’s funny because some of those times come out of [nowhere]. I went to see KJ-52 [the Christian Eminem], and he has this whole shtick about being hip hop and Christian, and “you don’t have to be square,” etc – I have the luxury of not having to take him seriously. He ends his set as a sing-along with this bland Sunday morning praise song that seems to undermine his whole message.

MH: Christians can be sensitive about that. When we see someone like KJ-52, we think, “This reflects on the whole of Christianity; we’re not all like that!” We get defensive.

DR: I definitely learned that. There were times when I reacted more positively to something that was hokey, [and people felt] any Christian acts are a representation of all of Christianity. That’s another reason that I came to appreciate transformational artists [like] Myriad or Pedro the Lion – I never had a sense that those people felt they were representing all of Christianity.

MH: What presuppositions were reinforced? What ones were proven false?

DR: It’s funny because it’s the same answer to both, pretty much. I went in thinking most Christian pop culture is really shallow and ridiculous and obnoxious, and then I saw gospel golf balls so if you lose one at least you’re spreading “the word,” or thongs with stop signs to promote abstinence. But on the other hand, I saw [the transformational artists], or comedians using their experiences to really have and give insight to what it means to be Christian in America, so in some way, that preconceived notion was reinforced and overturned. What that speaks to was that this culture is far more varied and heterodox than I had expected it to be…it was a much more rich and thriving culture than I expected to find, even though I did see crazy things.