Relief Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Culbertson offers some follow-up thoughts and comments about the book UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why It Matters, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons with research by the Barna Group.

Recently we also had the pleasure of interviewing author David Kinnaman (Go ahead and click over if you’re not sure what unChristian is about). If you have been reading the blog over the past year, you know that I found this book shrink wrapped at Barnes and Noble and couldn’t resist buying it, despite my feeling that I was falling prey to marketing genius.  I promised to read and report back—a promise I’m fulfilling today. 

Though I wouldn’t call UnChristian a page turner (pages of statistics and anecdotes pack more of a quiet punch), I can confidently recommend it—to Christians.  There is no way to read this book without gaining perspective, awareness, and humility.  While there will certainly be parts of the research that build your ego up a bit (as you realize that hey, you already do that or at least you don’t do that), it’s more likely you’ll remember the moments that turned your stomach a bit as your spirit confirms that yeah, you have done that.  However, while on the surface it may seem interesting to non-Christians (called “outsiders” in the research), I don't think the book holds much for them.  There’s the initial affirmation of everything they’ve probably felt angry about, but it’s followed by a lot of coaching toward Christians about how to avoid the unChristian persona.  One of my co-workers said, “So this book will help Christians suck a little less?”  Not exactly a book-jacket sound byte, but I suppose that is the goal. 

I will add, though, that the book is a great conversation starter if you’re looking to talk about Jesus but don’t know how to bring it up with people in your life.  The beauty is that the cover and title are interesting enough that people ask about the book—nearly all of my coworkers eventually did during the time I was reading—and the explanation of the book sets you up nicely.  In explaining, you admit that there are some problems with the Christian persona/agenda/attitude.  The judgmental eye they’ve come to expect from Christians is already trained on Christian culture instead of them, which helps both of you.  And if you’ve been reading the book, you’ve at least figured out a few things to avoid.

Though we covered a lot of ground in the interview, there are a few thoughts I’ll add:

Since I’m a words girl, I love the subtle shift in definition that David and Gabe have created for the word “unchristian.”  There’s the obvious meaning: behaving or believing in a way that is not Christian, as in “he swore—how unchristian!”  But now there’s the new meaning: behaving or believing in a way that has become associated with Christians even though it is not Christ-like, as in “I try to stay away from that unChristian church group.”  I like it as a noun, too, as in “I’m sorry.  That judgmental unChristian (your new accountability partner) told everyone your darkest secret and ridiculed you when her bible study group asked for prayer requests."  If enough people read the book, there could be a shift in our Christian lexicon.

Here are a couple of my more snarky notes:

We’re so proud that we don’t swear.  
In the third chapter, “Hypocritical,” Kinnaman shares that “In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives.”  Porn, stealing, infidelity, visiting a psychic, drugs, and so much more—there’s just not much of a statistical difference between Christians and others.  There were some differences though*:  Christians were less likely to use profanity in public or buy a lottery ticket (but also less likely to recycle, how sad!).

Anyway, as I read the rest of the book, and long after I put it down, this is what stuck with me:  This is our big victory??  We don’t swear.  Ahh… wouldn’t Jesus be proud.  We’ve managed to modify our behavior to look holy even though we haven’t got any handle on our hearts or our actions toward one another.  And before you quote to me that the tongue is like a rudder on a ship, etc., learning not to swear does not mean that Christians are less likely to wound a friend, gossip, complain, and judge others with their words.  I’m not saying that everyone should start swearing, but I’d love to see more people focusing on how we treat each other and “outsiders.”

A sidebar sexual agenda?  
It would be difficult to write a book like this one without letting one’s own opinions show occasionally in the data analysis.  I found the wording of this section** interesting:

“…what is now the basic perspective of Mosiacs and Busters [younger generations]—that sexuality can be recreational, that oral sex and other forms of sexual encounters are healthy and reasonable behaviors, and that there is no need for hiding behind formality or embarrassment when talking about sexual intimacy.  Even though the 1960s was defined by substantial social and sexual upheavals, there is no need to debate which generation has faced more problems… Mosiacs and Busters need help.”  

Maybe I’m just another example of this mindset (I’m a buster, technically) but I was surprised with the negative tone of this section.  While I agree that our generations have twisted sexuality in many ways, some of the things listed don’t seem all that dangerous to me.  I don’t think that promiscuous sex for recreation is a good idea, but I do think that sex was designed to be, well, also fun.  And oral sex “and other forms of sexual encounters” (eyebrows raised) are too often used as an excuse to be intimate without a marriage commitment (as in, we haven’t crossed that line), but in the context of a marriage, I can make an argument from the Song of Solomon that oral sex is A-OK.  And I’d argue that talking about sex without formality and embarrassment is a lofty goal, but a good one for married couples, parents and children, even the church , provided that the discussion honors the beauty of what God has created.  (Look for some thoughts on Rob Bell’s Sex God in the weeks to come.)

But despite my picky curiosity, I'd say that overall, the book is wonderfully challenging and insightful.  I do hope you’ll pick up a copy .

*p. 47
**p. 129

We interrupt Relief News Tuesday to bring you an important response to questions/comments we’ve received regarding the direction for the Relief Blog.

Dear Relief Readers:

I don’t mean to sound like your girlfriend, but we need to talk.

The title of this blog is actually the subject line of an email I received in reply to last week’s post on how to read the Bible, which (along with several other comments we’ve recently received) leads me to believe that some people out there in Relief-land assume that “edgy,” the term Relief has used to describe our Christian literature, means we are Christians who don’t (or shouldn’t) read or study the Bible.  Let me assure you, this is not the case.

In a way, this confusion is not unprecedented.  Over the life of this journal, we’ve been asked by many to justify our existence in Christian publishing, and we’ve responded by saying that we seek to “bridge the gap” between what we perceive as a growing rift between secular and Christian publishing—a rift that was confirmed this past week when we were criticized for being both too conservative and traditional for edgy AND too loose and off-the-mark with our biblical interpretations to be considered “Christian.”  What surprised us though, was that it was an atheist website that wrote we “watered down religion” by picking and choosing “which laws, rules or commandments” to follow, while it was the fellow Christian writers who criticized the fact that we are running a blog series on studying the Bible.  And so, the question once again on everyone’s mind seems to be what we mean by “edgy.”

And we’ll admit it—carefully studying the Bible doesn’t initially seem like the most “edgy” activity in the world.  Nevertheless, it is essential to living a healthy spiritual life—just as studying writing is essential to being a successful writer.  As you’ve probably noticed by now, publishing “edgy” Christian writing isn’t our only goal here at Relief.  We strive to also act as a resource for Christian writers, which mean we’ve published quite a few articles recently designed to make writers more professionally successful. For example, we’ve blogged about why writers need technology and how writers can hone their craft—and we’ve received glowing compliments about these articles, even though they weren’t as “edgy” as, say, our interview about Relevant Church’s 30 Day Sex Challenge.   It seems, though, that it is easier to convince people that writing takes practice, development, and study than it is to convince them that faith also takes practice, development, and study.  But as a Christian literary journal, we feel it necessary to address both Christian and literary matters alike.


Back to the Relief Blog:

With this in mind, we plan to continue publishing resources for Christians in addition to resources for writers—and we plan to present a comprehensive view of both subjects.   In an effort to gain a “complete picture of Christ and life,” we have attempted to represent a complete picture of his people.  We therefore have a right-wing conservative Christian blogging alongside a left-wing liberal one.  We have a stay-at-home-schooling-mom blogging next to a workaholic dad.  Heck, we have published authors blogging next to first-time bloggers.  Think of this like Barbara Walters’ “The View,” only we won’t talk over each other, jockeying for more camera time. So stick around and get to know our new bloggers as God sees them: inquiring, intriguing, and absolutely beautiful people.

And for the record, almost all of the ideas you’ll encounter in these blogs, like almost all of what you’ll encounter in life, remain open to discussion and refinement.  In addition to providing a full, eclectic picture of what it means to be Christian today, we also strive to be more accessible as a community.  If something you read strikes you as either too edgy or not quite edgy enough, you are invited and encouraged to leave a comment (I think we are close to working out all the bugs with our commenting system).  Think of the edginess as coming from your ability to assess, question, and delight in your faith as much as you would your art.  And if you just can’t get enough of Relief on this website, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and roaming around the Relief Writers Network.  We strive to be a community and we would love for you to be a part of that community.

Like I said above, if both Christian life and Christian writing are going to be all that they can be, we need to talk.

Sincerely,

Heather von Doehren
Assistant Editor
Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression

P.S. We’ve also received emails from people who can’t quite figure out what we’re blogging about when. That’s my fault, as I’ve been experimenting with the schedule this first month (think of me as the B. F. Skinner of the Relief Weblog).  Therefore, I promise to experiment less for consistency’s sake.  As such, you’ll find a “Blog Schedule” published on the right sidebar.  Mondays will feature a message from one of our editors regarding the state of writing and publishing, focusing on topics specifically designed to help writers.  Tuesdays will continue to feature updates about Relief News and other happenings with the journal.  Wednesdays will be a sort of “Relief Recommends Day,” where we’ll publish interviews with authors, book reviews, websites that you absolutely must know about, and the like.  Thursdays and Fridays we’ll rotate staff bloggers to give you insight into more general and personal stories about life, God, and writing.  We will not update on Saturdays and Sundays (unless there’s breaking news) in order to focus on the actual print journal.  Use this time to browse the archive or submit your creative work.  Or, just browse and submit all the time.  That works too.