The Gospel and Geordie Shore

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog. This is due to the fact that I have been finishing my Masters Thesis. Now it is done!!! Handed in and everything!!! So now I am back and ready to look at life, the gospel and everything!!

Tonight I am home alone with a lung infection while my man goes out and plays a gig. That means that this lonely heart is flicking through the channels and wondering why there are so many crap shows on! I have hundreds of channels and nothing to watch!

Geordie Shore flicked across my screen and, like an idiot, I decided to kill a few brain cells by watching it. If you have never seen Geordie Shore a) don't and b) here is a short synopsis:

4 guys and 4 girls in Newcastle, England (also known as Geordies) are put into a flat Big Brother style and then they drink, have sex with each other, have dramas, and drink some more. It's quality stuff.

Maybe my lung infection has spread to my brain but I started to wonder why this show existed. Can that many people find this show interesting enough that it warrants not only this show but Valley Nights, Here Come the Geordies, and Ex On the Beach (all spin offs)?

The crazy thing to me about this show is the way that every single one of the members has sex with each other, despite having partners and/or sleeping with others of the team, and yet they all get upset about relationship failures. If one of the girls sees her man of the hour hooking up with another girl they go psycho with rage, but then do exactly the same thing back.

It made me wonder, what does the gospel say to people who live like this? How can Jesus reach people like this who spend most of their time drunk out of their minds and having sex with random people?

The funny thing is, I have quite a good insight into this as I was once one of those people. I like to think I wasn't as bad as these guys but the reality was that my life hung on alcohol and boys. 

What I recognise in this show is the desperation that all of these people have for someone to love them. Even if it starts with a one night stand, the reactions show that each of these guys and girls have a desire to be loved, to mean something to the person they are sleeping with. They pretend not to care when they get rejected or cheated on, but it doesn't quite work and they inevitably end up in tears or in a rage.

Ultimately, these people are lonely and desperate for love.

They fill their lives with alcohol and sex thinking that these two things will make them feel less lonely, make them feel loved. One girl said tellingly that she wasn't use to guys not paying attention to her so when a guy she liked ignored her she felt lost and confused. She has equated sex and sexual attention as love, and when that doesn't happen her whole understanding of herself and her life is called into question. 

The gospel would say to people like this that they are loved, that they don't need to give their body to find love. Yet, Christianity is not a faith that is based on extreme sensory experience. Faith does not feel like a drunken party, and being in love with Jesus is not the same as having someone sexually attracted to you. So faith can seem boring compared to a life full of sensual desire.

The challenge that we face in professing the gospel to a generation that is fuelled by drugs, alcohol and sex, is that we first need to explain what love actually means. We are speaking a different language to them when we say the word 'love'. To them love has always been used to get them into bed, as a way to manipulate. Love in terms of the gospel is the exact opposite of this. There is no manipulation involved, merely a desire to bring wholeness to a persons life.

So what do we do with that? 

I believe the first step is to live out gospel love at all times. Being Christians who get drunk or sleep with people outside of marriage is not necessarily bad for our own faith (though I would argue it still is) but actually shows people that our understanding of love through Christ is still not enough to overcome the sensual temptations of the world. Through our actions everyday we say whether or not the love of Christ is something that overcomes the world, or is merely something we profess with our mouths but not with our lives.

With people who spend their life seeing another, false form of love lived out, it is through our every day actions of real love that will show them a alternative that is worth living.

Too many Christians think that getting drunk and having sex with their partner outside of marriage is either ok, or not ok because the rules say so. But actually it is about whether or not the love of Christ is something we take seriously, that impacts our whole life and becomes a testament to a world that has gone crazy on its own desires.

Once we recapture what it means to be loved, then maybe we can start reaching those who are so desperate for it.

Perhaps it is when we start taking seriously the love of Christ in our own lives that this will start to impact the lives of those around us. We don't want to offer Christianity as a Jesusified version of a drunken party. We don't want people giving up drugs just to get high on the Holy Spirit. We believe that Christ's love offers an alternative to everything in life because it transforms life to the point where sensual desires are not the be all and end all.

I watch Geordie Shore and feel deeply sad for the young girls and guys on the show who don't know love and appear to have no one living it out in front of them. I pray that one day someone will be salt and light to those people, and until then I hope I can be the same for people I meet in my life.

Bread and Circuses

Anyone who has ever been in a class with me knows that I like to ask questions. Lots of questions.

I have tried, honestly I have, to just shut up and not put my hand up and not ask questions that I know will make half the class groan because I am taking up time. I try not to put my hand up with the answer every time the teacher asks a questions. I try really hard!! But something happens to me when I try and restrain myself. My insides get all fluttery, my hands can shake, I start to get nervous for the teacher standing up the front in silence because no one is answering, I feel physically ill. So, without fail, I will put my hand up.

It's an illness.

What surprises me every time are the number of people for whom this is not the case! For so many people they put their heads down, try and appear invisible, pray that their name won't be called, and sigh with relief when it is all over.

My brain doesn't compute this.

Because I see it as inherently important to be brave enough to ask questions. I see it as a fundamental part of life to challenge those that have the power/knowledge, to learn from them as much as possible, and to share when I think I have knowledge that someone may need. It may be annoying as all heck when you are in the class with me, but later on in life I think the fear of putting one's hand up can becoming crippling to society.

The Romans use to have a saying that goes like this:

Panem et Circenses

In English that translates to "Bread and Circuses".

It was a saying used to indicate that a society of people with full bellies and enough entertainment will give up any responsibility they have in politics and therefore their power. It is a saying full of cynicism and, scarily, not just a little truth. My take on it today would be "Meals and Movies".

This giving up of the power to speak into society and change things didn't end when the Roman Empire fell. Today, in the United States, the voting for the person who will be the most powerful man (or woman) in the world is taking place. And a lot of people won't vote. They won't vote for a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones among the 20 year old's will be that they can't be bothered because how does it relate to them?

During the election on Parliament in New Zealand in the last couple of years there was a decrease, yet again, of people in certain age groups who didn't vote. Talking to my friends who didn't choose to vote, one of the common lines was that neither of the main political parties will change much about "my" life so why bother?

We don't vote because we don't care. We are happy, with full tummies and enough money to entertain ourselves, why does it matter who is in charge. We have given up our power by ignoring our political responsibilities.

It goes further though.

This giving up of the power to speak out is rampant throughout our communities.

You go into schools and children are too afraid of bullying to act too smart or speak up in class with something intelligent. 

In churches people are more concerned about the quality of the coffee and chat afterwards than really paying attention to the sermon, challenging or questioning the pastor on their points, or even calling out answers if a speaker asks a question.

You go into work places and people are asked to lie to their bosses or make up figures, or they see work place bullying or sexual harassment and they are too embarrassed to put their neck out and draw attention to something that may result in them being fired.

We have become complacent, happy with what we have to the point that rocking the boat would be disastrous and costly and uncomfortable.

I believe this is true especially for Christians who don't want to appear 'Bible bashy' so they avoid talking to their mates or colleagues about their faith, about their doubts, or about their religion.  

We are afraid to speak out, believing that our actions will suffice. That if we act as a good Christian then words are unnecessary as surely our example will compel others to not only recognise Jesus in us but also to then accept him as Lord and Saviour.

All I ask is how?

How is someone suppose to know what they have not heard?

Our God is a talkative God. 

The universe was spoken into existence.

Moses was compelled to march up to Pharaoh by nothing more than a spoken promise. 

Abraham left his homeland on the back of a spoken promise too. 

Prophets left, right and centre were called with words and then went with words.

Jesus was tortured and killed for doing nothing more than preaching words.

The first thing that happened at Pentecost was the preaching of words.

The gospel spread through the passing on of words.

And now we are called into that conversation.

And it requires a lot of balls-iness to speak within the conversation.

It will mean people won't like what you have to say.

It will mean some people may not read my blog again.

It may mean you lose friends.

It may mean you shrink your church.

It may mean that people think you're a tad nuts.

But how will they hear if there is no one to speak?

Everyone of us is being called by God into a conversation that brings death and life. Death of the old and life in the new. And the words that are spoken to us should be so challenging, so changing, that we are compelled to share them in our broken and halting speech.

Don't be afraid of being responsible for speaking in God's power and changing the political, sociological, and societal landscapes of our world.

Throw away the bread, pack up the circuses, and be moved by the power that is the Word.