Relaxing in our room tonight, perusing hundreds of Italian TV channels, I stumbled upon the Italian version of MTV. I was struck by how similar the acts were to those on other versions of the channel. Indeed, mute the sound and watching it, it could easily be the UK or US version: same dances, gangster hand gestures, caps worn at jaunty angles, chunky gold earrings worn by burly blokes, the inevitable crotch-grabbing, etc etc. All in all, the world is shrinking, local popular cultures are gradually but inexorably being replaced by a global and homogenous popular culture, and many aspects of popular culture today all look pretty much the same. I remember in the 1970s how travelling from country to country, even within Europe alone, yielded considerable diversity from country to country. Much, much less of that now.
Naturally, new tools like the Internet have shrunk the world. But arguably it goes further than that. Western liberalism has, in the past two or three decades, become obsessed with the cult of diversity, while popular culture icons have emulated this value to the extent that, ironically, diversity is increasingly leading to a global homogenous popular culture where everyone seeks to act the same in the name of coolness. Thus it seems if you emphasise differences enough, everyone jumps on the bandwagon so that end result is most of us act the same.
What has this to do with Christians? Well, consider, for example, worship. In the name of diversity traditional worship styles have been challenged and replaced by soft rock version. Now, I'm not saying anything against this rather archaic (from a popular culture perspective) form of worship (OK, maybe I am being a tiny bit critical). The problem is, when everyone does it the end result is not only that local expressions of worship are no different from elsewhere, but indeed that the "new way of doing things" becomes the norm.
The liberal West's cult of diversity is, ironically, watering down diversity and inexorably leading to a global heterogeneity. For its part, the Church too often emulates the world in a bid to remain culturally relevant. Unfortunately, local and distinct expressions of Christianity are subsequently being swallowed up by an increasingly homogenously global expression of Christian faith, so that when I recently visited a Latin American church it was like being in Australia. And we are all the poorer for it.
The liberal West's cult of diversity is, ironically, watering down diversity and inexorably leading to a global heterogeneity. For its part, the Church too often emulates the world in a bid to remain culturally relevant. Unfortunately, local and distinct expressions of Christianity are subsequently being swallowed up by an increasingly homogenously global expression of Christian faith, so that when I recently visited a Latin American church it was like being in Australia. And we are all the poorer for it.
3 comments:
How could anywhere be poorer for being like Australia???
I meant they were emulating Hillsong and as such one could barely tell that it was aLatin American church.
Laissez-faire liberalism tends to debase the arts, taking things down to the lowest common denominator. There are not many great hymns or worship songs written by liberal Christians, by those who don't believe strongly. If David was a liberal we wouldn't have the Psalms. There is a trend in some churches to turn collective worship into performances by bands emulating the world. Christian musicians should lead worship, not become idols. A shame that some western Christians are exporting this trend. Of course Blanchard would say that Rock music is itself an import into western culture.
Post a Comment