“Christian vs. Christ-Follower” – More Videos

Posted by: Chris L
in Emergent Church, Legalism, Linked Articles, ODM Responses
8
May

Last year, a church put together some videos comparing stereotypical “Christians” and “Christ-Followers” using the Mac/PC ad meme.  We’ve blogged on this particular topic, as well, so I don’t want to re-tread the old ground.  However, it looks like there are now some more of these videos which have been produced.

This round of videos seems to be a bit less snarky (my primary criticism last time around), but still suffer from the limitations of the meme, which creates conflict between ‘traditional’ and ‘emerging’ stereotypes, when both sides need to leard to live and serve together.  With that said, though, I think the videos do paint somewhat of an accurate synopsis of some of the discussions we’ve been having – particularly the ’straw man’ in the second video.

The first one:

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The second one:

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[HT to VerumSerum from last week - it took me a bit to figure out installation of the new video plugin...]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 11:22 am and is filed under Emergent Church, Legalism, Linked Articles, ODM Responses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 

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10 Comments(+Add)

1   Brendt    http://csaproductions.com/blog/
May 8th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Odd. I see this round as being more snarky. In the previous videos, “Christian” was just clueless. Now he’s advanced to being a manipulative excretory orifice.

I’m guessing that by “straw man”, you were referring to the “church planter”. While I agree with that analysis, these two videos have a bigger straw man in “Christian”. He’s painted by CCC with just as broad a brush and way-over-the-top exaggeration as Warren/Bell/etc are painted by Ken/Ingrid/etc.

To be honest, I kinda see this as beneath the CRNInfo site. While your responses to the lunacy at CRN/Slice 2.0 are fairly measured and well-seasoned with (correctly applied) Scripture, these videos turn to Ken/Ingrid/etc and say “I know you are, but what am I?”

“Nice” to see that CRN/Slice 2.0 doesn’t have the corner on the market of extending the middle finger to Galatians 6:1, but that the other side of the argument has caught up.

It is to barf.

2   Brendt    http://csaproductions.com/blog/
May 8th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

You’re right, btw, about needing to “learn to live and serve together”. Pretty clear that CCC wants none of that.

3   Chris L    http://www.fishingtheabyss.com/
May 8th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Brendt,

I had not thought of it that way, as the first videos seemed to have “Mac” being snarky, which was where I focused. I had not considered it from the standpoint of the way “PC” was written/acted. The stupid thing is that I should have known to look for this, because in the real “Mac vs. PC” ads they shifted the focus last year because of the ’snarkiness’ of Mac backfiring somewhat, in terms of sympathy.

The ‘emergent/emerging’ tendency to completely ignore some externals that should not be ignored (with foul language being a prime example), because “the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’”

The ‘fundamentalist’ tendency is to so overemphasize (and split hairs) on orthodoxy that the lines between actual orthopraxy and slavishness to externals are blurred to where they “clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside [they] are full of greed and wickedness.”

Neither is correct, and constantly sticking your thumb in your brother’s eye (or, extending the middle finger, as you put it) isn’t really the way to go about ‘loving one another’, especially if we’re going to be spending eternity together under the same roof (’in my Father’s house…’)

4   nathan    http://www.nathanneighbour.com
May 8th, 2007 at 6:18 pm

I liked the videos.

5   Henry (Rick) Frueh    http://judahslion.blogspot.com/
May 8th, 2007 at 7:11 pm

Arguing about what we should be called? Let’s see, Paul was partial to the “offscouring of the earth” or even the “chief of sinners”.

No, what did they call our Lord…oh yea, Beelzebub. How about that? How can I demand to be called “Christian” or “Christ follower” when I fall so short of exhibiting those descriptions in their fullest? And if someone does call me a Christian (like Christ) or a Christ Follower, I say with Paul “I am what I am by the grace of God”.

6   Brendt    http://csaproductions.com/blog/
May 9th, 2007 at 7:24 am

To riff off Dave Barry, “Offscouring” would make a great name for a rock band! :-)

7   amy    
May 9th, 2007 at 8:04 am

The videos (including the previous one discussed on this site) have one underlying theme:

A “Christ-follower” is superior to a “Christian” in every way.

The videos mock “Christian,” over-generalize who he is, and portray him as arrogant. The “Christ-follower” is presented as “cool” and “humble.”

The problem is that the supposedly “humble” Christ-followers created these videos, which are designed to show their superiority over other Christians.

The only reason I can think of someone actually liking these videos is that they themselves have been deceived into thinking that their way is oh-so-very superior to the way of other Christians.

8   ian    
May 9th, 2007 at 9:10 am

I completely agree with Amy’s point. These videos widen and encourage the divide between traditional Christians and “emerging types”. In their own way, they’re as divisive as some of the things CRN put out.

9   chris o    
May 9th, 2007 at 9:53 am

I guess I never viewed them as saying “Christ followers” are superior to Christians. I understood them as poking fun at the whole cultural phenomena with in christendom. I also think there is kind of a warning not to view “Christ followers” as the final product so to speak, but to recognize it’s just another version of the same message. Am I making any sense? I thought the videos were more of an observation rather than making a statement about superiority.
However, after reading Amy’s comments and reviewing the videos, I can understand where she’s coming from, and I hope that isn’t what they’re saying.

10   ian    
May 9th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

If you’re gonna parody the Mac V PC things, at least do it creatively!

One Trackback/Ping

  1. CRN.Info and Analysis » Step Away from Your Photoshop…    Jul 27 2007 / 10am:

    [...] (Personally, I think that despair.com, one of my favorite sites for gifts, has a much better sense of art, flair and humor containing a bit more truth, as well.  It appears that the ODM Photoshopper’s “creativity” was also pulled from depair.com.  Compare this to the original.  Also, lest any ‘emerging’ folks’ heads get too big on the part of mockery, let’s not forget the Christian vs. Christ-follower videos…) [...]

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