T Shirt Christianity

The attention span of our society seems to keep getting shorter.  The news reports have long been know for boiling the news down to the sound bites, those 10-15 second clips which they try to use to sum up the positions of the candidates.

It has long been hoped that twenty-four hour news channels and in depth analysis in the blogosphere would take the discussion to new depths.  Unfortunately, that just hasn't been the case.  While the coverage has grown a mile wide, in most places it is still only an inch deep.  We don't hear more of what the candidates say or analyze the policies to a greater degree, we only hear the sound bites more often.

The problem is that many of the issues that we care about cannot be summed up in 10-15 seconds.  Education, national security, energy, the environment, the economy are all complex issues that affect our lives.  The sound bite scratches the surface but doesn't really enlighten.  And in each of these issues, the details are what is most important.  After all, everyone wants a strong national defense, a booming economy, a healthy environment and world class schools.  The trick is in balancing all of these needs.

None of their plans are perfectly good or perfectly bad.  Most plans have parts that will be a benefit and part  that will cause pain.  We can debate which part is which, but it is all there.  But the debate can't happen with bumper stickers, internet memes and 140 characters.  We have to go deeper.

And as bad as it is to have only a surface level understanding of national issues, I think that it is worse when we have the same approach to our faith.  Christian apparel is a $1.5 billion dollar industry in America.  Many people like to profess their faith by wearing a whitty slogan.  The problem is when our faith never gets deeper than the whitty slogan or internet meme.  

As Christians, we need to embrace the difficult issues.  We can't be afraid of the hard passages or the challenging concepts.  We need to accept the idea that serious believers can have differing opinions is some areas, but we are still no less brothers and sisters in Christ.  We need to embrace the uncertainty and allow the Holy Spirit to shine through the confusion.  When it is done, our faith will be stronger as a result,  We need go beyond the Christian t shirt lingo and develop a true relationship with God.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Our relationship with God should go deep into our very being.  The nature of God, our salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit are not easy concepts that can be summed up in a tweet.  And the thing is, no matter how deep we go, no matter how expansive our understanding of God, we will never understand it all.  We can all go deeper still.