In his book, Irresistible Revolution, New Monastic leader Shane Claiborne offers somewhat of a play on words in regards to the rocks crying out at the triumphal entry if the people were not to shout Hosanna! He is discussing the importance of the local church getting involved in charitable work as a means of contributing and living out the social Gospel. As he notes that (evangelical) churches have been mysteriously absent from this type of Jesus-following work, he conjectures that perhaps instead of rocks crying out, the Rock Stars must. This stuck with me. When the church misses its mission, God doesn't forgo the mission; God goes elsewhere to accomplish what needs to be done. So, why not the rockstars? People like and listen to them.
Bono
Simon Cowell
What are some others that are hot on social agendas?
Oh, Brangelina and Madonna, how could I forget them?
Then I found this post today on the world hunger awareness blog, which is listed on my blogroll. Who knew that stars were auctioning off self-designed lunch boxes with the proceeds going to local charities? Cool! Can anyone afford to bid on one for me, preferably Mike Myers? Thanks.
This all tracks back to marketing and consumerism in our country. What's up with that? We even have to buy our contributions to charity. Interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about this right now. It's like guilt-free shopping. (My kids wear Red Campaign clothes from the Gap). It gets people involved and caring, but is that too teleological?
By the by, The New Monastics deserve their own post, which I'll do later.
2 comments:
I actually love this trend of "stars" getting involved in social action. I don't know that it inspires me to do more myself, but I love reading about and watching "them."
I often lament that the church has such little influence - that they can't raise as much money in years of campaigning for world hunger as Bono can in one evening. Or, that Bono was invited to speak at the Prayer Breakfast rather than a "church" leader, perhaps. The church's influence is definitely stymied. I guess that speaks to our track record. We have a lot of catching up to do.
I dream of some kind of collaboration at some point.
I love the idea of some sort of collaboration as well. But I wonder if it will ever truly happen, mainly because the church, at least conservatives, would probably feel like they would have to surrendur things they aren't willing to part with at this point in order to work with "the world." (How do you maintain an other worldy status then?) It's a challenge for the church to remember that pure and undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and widows--not to convert them to Christianity. (The book of James changed my life when I was in Bangladesh.) On the other hand, the church adds a valuable component that I think the rockstarts are missing sometimes, all the more reason for them to join forces, that component being Jesus. So what does this union look like and how would it work? One word keeps coming to mind: toleration. Whatdaya think?
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