Geek For Christ
Aug. 3rd, 2012 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenYesterday, I was reading Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be and the following passage struck me:
I thought, I am a geek for Christ.
There's one other Christian at my place of work. When I found out he was a Christian, I didn't ask him what denomination he was, I didn't interrogate him on his doctrine, I didn't try to figure out whether he was "sound". I was simply happy to find a fellow in Christ. (No, I didn't go ALLCAPS on him, but then we were at work and it wouldn't have been appropriate.)
If someone says they're a Christian, they're a Christian. There's only one person in the universe who can declare them not to be a Christian, and since my name isn't Jesus Christ, I'm not that person!
I've seen multiple definitions of what a hipster is, so I've just ended up being more confused. But one thing that seems clear to me: a hipster is all about being cool.
And, IMNSHO, wanting to be seen as cool is a sign of immaturity.
Hipster Christians (if I may coin a phrase) have a reaction "Oh crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." They want to keep out the riff-raff, only they call it "unsound" or "heresy" or "not True Christians". There's only one proper way to love Christ, they say, and that's my way.
Nope. You're a Christian if you say you're a Christian.
That isn't to say that there aren't certain expectations when one has made such a declaration, just as there are certain expectations when someone declares themselves to be a fan of something.
You expect them to know at least the basics of what they've declared themselves a fan of. You expect them to have read/watched/listened-to/played at least some of the canon of the thing they've declared themselves a fan of. Because how could they be a fan of it if they'd never seen it? Or never wanted to see it?
So I kind of expect that someone who calls themselves a Christian would want to read the bible. At least some of it. Because that's the canon.
Mind you, just as fans can argue what is and isn't canon, so can Christians. And have done, and probably still will do until the Second Coming. 8-) Even so, as with fans also, there's a subset of possible-canon that most people agree is canon. A common basis of discussion.
But just as there are different ways of expressing being a geek of something, so there are for Christians. To read the canon. To write meta about it. To write fanfic (midrash) about it. To filk it (only they're called hymns). To make art about it. To perform plays about it. To get together and talk about it. To memorize the canon. To explore the extra-canonical sources.
And you don't get to say that any one of these is more or less "Christian" than the others.
Though "hipster" Christians do want to do that.
You know the final irony of all this? Geeks welcome hipsters, too.
Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It’s the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”
I thought, I am a geek for Christ.
There's one other Christian at my place of work. When I found out he was a Christian, I didn't ask him what denomination he was, I didn't interrogate him on his doctrine, I didn't try to figure out whether he was "sound". I was simply happy to find a fellow in Christ. (No, I didn't go ALLCAPS on him, but then we were at work and it wouldn't have been appropriate.)
If someone says they're a Christian, they're a Christian. There's only one person in the universe who can declare them not to be a Christian, and since my name isn't Jesus Christ, I'm not that person!
I've seen multiple definitions of what a hipster is, so I've just ended up being more confused. But one thing that seems clear to me: a hipster is all about being cool.
And, IMNSHO, wanting to be seen as cool is a sign of immaturity.
Hipster Christians (if I may coin a phrase) have a reaction "Oh crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." They want to keep out the riff-raff, only they call it "unsound" or "heresy" or "not True Christians". There's only one proper way to love Christ, they say, and that's my way.
Nope. You're a Christian if you say you're a Christian.
That isn't to say that there aren't certain expectations when one has made such a declaration, just as there are certain expectations when someone declares themselves to be a fan of something.
You expect them to know at least the basics of what they've declared themselves a fan of. You expect them to have read/watched/listened-to/played at least some of the canon of the thing they've declared themselves a fan of. Because how could they be a fan of it if they'd never seen it? Or never wanted to see it?
So I kind of expect that someone who calls themselves a Christian would want to read the bible. At least some of it. Because that's the canon.
Mind you, just as fans can argue what is and isn't canon, so can Christians. And have done, and probably still will do until the Second Coming. 8-) Even so, as with fans also, there's a subset of possible-canon that most people agree is canon. A common basis of discussion.
But just as there are different ways of expressing being a geek of something, so there are for Christians. To read the canon. To write meta about it. To write fanfic (midrash) about it. To filk it (only they're called hymns). To make art about it. To perform plays about it. To get together and talk about it. To memorize the canon. To explore the extra-canonical sources.
And you don't get to say that any one of these is more or less "Christian" than the others.
Though "hipster" Christians do want to do that.
You know the final irony of all this? Geeks welcome hipsters, too.
