Krista Mournet

So yesterday I came across this article by Brett McCracken, author of Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide. The article is a seven-page attempt to lump a lot of Christians in my age group and younger into a new sub-culture: what McCracken calls “Christian hipsters.”

At first I thought it was kind of fun, and curiosity got the best of me (am I a hipster? I’ve never been hip before! What’s all this about?). I read the article and began to like it: I resonated with a lot of things McCracken’s “hipsters” stand for: concern for justice? Check. Community-centric focus? Yeah. Concern for creation care? That’s just common sense. A positive view of God’s creation? Yes. A passion for reading good books? Of course. So I dug a little deeper…apparently there are other characteristics of Christian hipsters, like hedonism, as McCracken explains:

“In order to be a hipster, one must be a rebel. Despite the fact that (ironically) hipster culture usually operates within and is sustained by the very structures it opposes, hipsterdom’s raison d’être is countercultural, boundary-pushing rebellion. As such, hipster existence is frequently rife with vices. If hipsters cannot completely overthrow the structures that bind them, they can at least destabilize them by engaging in hedonistic behavior: smoking, drinking, cursing, sexual experimentation, and so on. It’s about freedom, partying, and transgression—not in the Jersey Shore, frat-party sense (unless ironically), but in the “bourbon cask ales taste good and I don’t care if I get drunk” sense.”

Yeah, that’s not me. Then I took a “quiz” to determine exactly what “CHQ” (Christian Hipster Quotient–things are always cooler when they’re abbreviated) I have…I had a lot of free time…and these are some of the questions:

Your preferred house of worship would be: (a) A converted industrial warehouse with IKEA light fixtures and a corrugated steel coffee bar, (b) A pre-1950′s steeple church replete with pews, stained glass, and a conspicuously musty smell (c) Someone’s living room, with a few candles set out and (d) The auditorium of a school or college, rented by the church. Aren’t there a few more options in real life?

What would Jesus’ favorite beer have been? (a) Pabst (b) Chimay Red (c) Some sort of masculine stout (d) Jesus doesn’t drink! Did they even have beer in first century Palestine? And who drinks Pabst?

And my personal favorite: Which of the following reasons would prevent you from wearing a pair of skinny jeans? (a) Vaguely outmoded notions of modesty (b) Your gay friend wears them, which is cool, but … you know. (c) You can’t stand American Apparel. (d) You could never wear them better than the worship leader at your church. Well, let’s just say I have my reasons, and they don’t include these.

I began to get suspicious right about the time the quiz began asking me about my views on Thomas Kinkade.

I’m sure McCracken is a smart man who has done his research and has some good insight on the pulse of younger American Christians (or ‘Christ-followers’ if you’re a hipster, apparently). But why the need to lump us all into a “sub-culture”? Does that make us safer, easier to handle? Does he realize that as soon as you slap a label on something, it makes it easier for people to disregard it as a fad?

Are things like intellectual inquiry, passion for the history of our faith, care for the earth, care for the poor and marginalized, concern for rampant over-consumption and what it is doing to our planet, our people, our souls–are these things just “hip”? Or are they part and parcel of living in this world, at this time? Aren’t they things on which we should all at least form an intelligent opinion as citizens of the world?

The quiz told me I have a high CHQ, whatever that is. But I don’t want to go to church in a warehouse. I want to go to church in a church. And I don’t wear skinny jeans. No one wants to see that.

Want some unsolicited advice? Love God. Try to pattern your life after Christ. Care for your family. Be good to people. Find people who are wiser than you wherever you can, and listen to them. Try to fight the urge to consume, use, and discard. Go to church. Go anywhere you want, but go, regularly. Good things happen to your soul when you do. Read, and read well: newspapers, novels, books on theology and biblical studies, spiritual formation, philosophy. You’ll become a smarter person and you will be challenged and stretched. Read the Bible because it is the living, breathing, beautiful story of God at work in the world. And you’ll learn a lot. And don’t worry, please, about being hip.

When this hipster Christianity thing blows over, there will still be those of us who love to learn for learning’s sake, love our world, love God, and love God’s church. We may look different, listen to different music, meet in warehouses, houses, or churches, drink, or not. But be sure, the good stuff will last. Books by people like Eugene Peterson, Phyllis Tickle, Henri Nouwen, Kathleen Norris, James Houston, Thomas Merton, N. T. Wright, Donald Miller; Thomas a Kempis, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Benedict, Julian of Norwich–they’ll still be on the shelves. Stick with them and you’ll be okay.