I admit that while remembering commercial Christianity and pop Christian subculture in the 1990s in general does make me roll my eyes and wonder at what a dork I was (yes, I know I still am), I remember these things with such affection - the same sort of fondness Mr. Wonderful has for ThunderCats and BraveStarr.
I will say I was perhaps the most ridiculously straight laced Christian kid ever, so I looked down on anyone shaking their booty or doing anything human in any way. To be honest, most of my memories about church and faith in the 1990s are full of fear and anxiety having to do with the constant judgment I felt from myself and other Christians that drove me to be "perfect". Therefore, I cannot relate to getting into trouble for doing anything wrong on a missions trip or listening to anything I wasn't supposed to with people in my youth group. I'm sure my parents were thankful, but wow, I was LAME, friends. I'm glad I didn't go through the whole getting into trouble for underage drinking bit, worrying about getting pregnant at 16, or anything of that sort, but I do wish I'd have paid attention to the world around me a bit more. I wasn't the least bit of fun to hang out with, I'm sure. It's hard to show God's love when you don't hang out with anyone except your parents. (But hey, at least I was always MVP for Bible baseball. I can't even be humble about how good I was at that game. I was even better than the weird homeschool kids who did nothing but remind us public school kids we were postmodern sinners who had to learn about evolution while their A Beka curriculum let them do extra Bible studying. P.S. My church attracted a lot of stereotypical homeschool families with dress codes, poor social skills, and a propensity to attempt the proselytism of fellow Christians, rather than well-adjusted, fun, and intelligent homeschool families.)
Oh, and here's another song from my favorite down under Christian rock band in case you're feeling nostalgic.
I'm a *little* offended by the homeschool comment...but other than that, yes.
ReplyDeleteAnd, at least we were lame together. Well, at least we grew out of the lame together. Right?
Ah, Shine. That will be in my head now, thankyouverymuch.
Offended? This is not a blanket statement, friend. I will, however, amend it so that it reflects that these people were at my church, not every homeschooler I knew.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I do apologize for being unintentionally insensitive. Sorry, dear.
ReplyDeletehahaha-i read that other blog & all of it is so true! i have especially fond memories of Psalty, McGee & Me and being the fastest Bible verse finder in my youth group. This actually made me happy in my remembrance of my super-christian upbringing. Sometimes, even though I don't participate in all of those activities anymore, it's nice to be reminded that someone else experienced the same things that you did & knows where you came from. And it's hard to imagine anyone not liking you Clarissa, especially as a child. And Alaina was definately not lame either-I have proof of that! And DC Talk's "Jesus Freak" album is the holy grail of all things Jesusy & my first christian CD that I owned!
ReplyDeleteI do remember most of this with fondness as well as horror. :) Also, I would say that I was generally unliked by everyone my age when I was little. No joke.
Deleteand Newsboys was my 2nd :)
ReplyDeleteOh dear, while I do laugh, I'd much rather be in that environment than in a gang. I did grow up in the suburbs of Chicago. It wasn't all bad, but there WAS a bubble. I so wish I wasn't so judgemental to all my friends though. It isn't as if you can go back and apologize for EVERYTHING you did. boo!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that even though we're NOT perfect, we've figured out that SOMETIMES we should probably hold our tongues or say we're sorry. Ugh. A hard lesson.
DeleteOh, I was mostly kidding because Kennan read it and went "Ack (or something like that", but then he realized HE WAS LIKE THAT, so he really shouldn't be taking offense. But I thought it was hysterical, in the offensive way, because IT WAS TRUE. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we're not fighting over a stupid/offhand comment. :) Also, I don't remember Kennan acting like that, but maybe I hadn't met him yet. Haha!
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