WWJD? Drink, get a tat and listen to NPR

June 17, 11:35 AMSalt Lake City Christian ExaminerDavid Brown

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It is time for Christian culture to make a Biblical transition away from clean cut, conservative and straight-laced.  And what better place for Christians to start this new cultural movement than in Salt Lake City?  Yes there was a time when Paul instructed, for the orderliness of worship, for men to have short hair and women long.  There might have been a time when tattoos were dangerously unhealthy and a mark of pagan worship or idol allegiance.  For some, NPR is the voice of liberal granolas, queers and anti-American zealots.  And drinking?  Well, I am hard-pressed to come up with a time when Jesus wouldn't have encouraged that.

In SLC there is the little issue of setting oneself apart, not hiding your light under a basket but letting it shine from the hilltop.  I realize this is stretching Jesus' meaning in Matthew chapter five just a bit, but stick with me.  Why should Evangelicals in Utah attempt to appeal to those curious of Christ through clean living when the Mormons already have the market cornered?  It is true that at times, living life to the full means we learn to discipline unhealthy and destructive habits.  Abstinence can bring life and beauty.  I am not advocating that as Evangelicals we abandon this.  I am merely suggesting that we give up trying to beat the Mormons at their own game.  There is a whole other side of the coin when it comes to beauty and living life to the full.  That flip side isn't indulgence and greed, but rather liberalism and feast.

In Scripture the Kingdom of God was compared to a banquet, and the banquet was made available to all sorts of unlikelies and unmentionables.  Why should anyone be forced to turn away from the table because they perceive it only to be for teetotaling, lamb-hugging conservatives?  So in Salt Lake today, I think this is what Jesus would do.

Drink.  This is a no brainer.  Jesus drank in his own day.  In a culture where non-Christians are already on the fringes because of strict and condemning blue laws and regulations, why not cast propriety to the wind and drink a glass of wine or a beer or two?  I am not saying you should hole yourself away and flood your anxieties with liquor.  I'm just saying that having a drink with friends could actually progress the Gospel in a culture where the banquet feast is assumed to be stodgy and alcohol free.

Get a tattoo.  O.K., I'll admit.  I don't have a tattoo, and I don't plan on getting one.  Nonetheless, we live in a visual culture where images and symbols have been almost completely co-opted for the secular rather than the sacred.  Throughout most of history the Church was home to some of the most vivid and powerful imagery known to man.  These symbols and rituals have been used for hundreds of years to convey the depth and truth of reality that extends beyond the rational and reasonable.  Images can do that sort of thing.  The human body is already the most beautiful apex of creation.  It should not be considered a sin to tastefully anoint it with the power and beauty of sacred symbols and imagery.

Listen to NPR.  Christians today, I think as much or more than ever, live in cloistered ghettos and mansions.  We protect ourselves with conservative neighborhoods and conservative friends and conservative news.  Don't take me wrong.  When it comes to Biblical theology I am a conservative.  I believe Scripture means what it says within the times, context and genres in which it was written.  I don't think we should throw this away.  But socially, there is no longer any good reason for us to assume that conservative is good while liberal is evil.  Isolating half of the population and ignoring them in every way is evil indeed.  In such a conservative place as Salt Lake City, what harm can NPR possible do?  Step out a little and experience new flavors.  Dance with those who don't think as you.  How can you know truth and bring it to others, if you only know one perspective of it?

It is time to break expectations for the sake of Gospel truth and beauty.  Get out there and live a little.  Enjoy the banquet that has been prepared for you and for crazies of all sorts.