Before I elaborate on the side effects, I would like to take a moment to provide a summary of this Christian pop culture. The earliest form of this culture is Contemporary Christian Music, "a genre of popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith" (Wikipedia definition). Contemporary Christian music pioneered the sub-culture of Christian pop; songs that may have been lyrically different were certainly less distinguishable musically.
While religious literature has many years on Contemporary Christian music, there has only recently been a wave of religious popular culture literature typically in the form of Christian fiction. Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness, a thriller about the struggle between the supernatural and natural worlds, birthed hundreds of other Christian fiction writers. This era culminated in the incredible success of Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkin's end times epic Left Behind.
On the coat tails of religious fiction came religious films. Forget Mel Gibson's moving The Passion of the Christ or the admirable Chronicles of Narnia adaptations. Independent production houses such as Cloud Ten Pictures and Gener8Xion Entertainment have sought to establish themselves as original faith-based film production companies. Cloud Ten has produced three films based on the Left Behind novels by Lahaye and Jenkins.
Been into a Lifeway store recently? The largest supplier of Christianity-based resources in the world operates over 140 stores across the country offering products to largely the evangelical community. Anything and everything can be found in the store, all focused on the Christian "message": t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, mouse pads, plus all the latest fiction, films, and music any evangelical would ever want to purchase.
If all of this sounds disturbing, it should. If it sounds like heaven, keep reading this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment