Popular culture vs. the Bible

Today we had a session on popular culture and how the values and beliefs it promotes are vastly different from that of the Bible's. I absolutely loved the discussion - anything about pop culture or the media or fun stuff like that is way more interesting than the history of the dead sea scrolls (and more relevant, too).

What does popular culture say about...

1. Money?
   Money is everything. Money = possessions = popularity = happiness.
2. Fashion?
   We must be brand-conscious and keep up with the changing trends in order to be viewed as fashionable and cool. Our identity is found in our dressing and sense of fashion. We look up to celebrities and base our standards of beauty on what society says; this results in an attempt to achieve impossible perfection as well as an unhealthy body image.
3. Friendships?
   We desire to be popular and well-liked among everyone. Friends are to be manipulated for our benefit. We pick and choose our friends, imitate each other, and leave out others so we come across as more exclusive and superior.
4. Sex?
   It's normal and accepted to have sex with anyone, anytime, anywhere. There's no need to wait for marriage, because if you love someone, sex is a good way of expressing that. Casual sex is seen as glamorous and does not have to be between a man and a woman.
5. Faith/religion?
   Religious people are portrayed as weird, abnormal, and not cool. People openly praise satan, and celebrities are making religions like Scientology and Buddhism seem popular and cool.
6. Success?
   Our ultimate goal in life is to be successful, which means to do what we want. Success = money = fame = a good job = adoration = lots of possessions.
7. Family?
   It's normal to have a broken family, consisting of divorced parents, abused and rebellious kids, estranged relatives, and even two dads or two moms instead of a dad and a mom. Family doesn't matter so much anymore.
8. Christianity?
   It's boring, weird, old-fashioned, and extreme. People misunderstand it because of stereotypes in the media - Christians are portrayed as either wimpy, psycho, weird, or judgmental.

What does the Bible say about...

1. Money?
   We cannot serve two gods. Serving money is not serving God. But money is not evil - it's just how you use it. There has to be a balance and we should not be tempted by our insatiable desire for money.
2. Fashion?
   We don't have to worry about anything, least of all what we wear. Our identity is found in God, not in material things. Yes, we should look presentable and groom ourselves well, but we don't have to be brand-conscious or obsessed with obtaining the latest Marc Jacobs bag or Versace jacket.
3. Friendships?
   True friends accept you as you are, and we ought to love our neighbors as ourselves.
4. Sex?
   It is reserved for after marriage, because it's a sacred thing that bonds a couple together. It's something special to be shared only between a man and a woman.
5. Faith/religion?
   We ought not to worship idols, for we are to be the light of the world and a living testimony of God.
6. Success?
   In heaven, the rich will be poor, and vice versa. The possessions we accumulate here will not make it to heaven. Success is to do what God wants - only then will we live a fulfilling and meaningful life.
7. Family?
   Family is important, because they accept us as who we are. Families help to mold and shape us, and broken families should not be commonplace.
8. Christianity?
   Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth, and the light.

What should we do about popular culture?

• Avoid it?
  But we can't possibly run away from popular culture, because it's everywhere. It infiltrates into every aspect of our lives. We are also called to be in the world, although not of it.
• Accept it?
  But we can't just sit back and allow all this nonsense to fill our minds day after day. To accept it all without a filter would be to become a mindless blob. Also, we want to be different from nonbelievers, who mostly have no problems accepting popular culture because they don't know better.
• Condemn it?
  But we don't want to be extremely conservative Christians who people stare at and snigger at because we think every single TV show, movie, song, book, etc, is bad. We especially don't want to condemn something that we don't know much about, so I think it's important to understand something (like Harry Potter, for example) before we condemn it to hell and try to convince others. Otherwise, it will just make us look foolish.
• Engage it?
  We need to ask questions and listen, and help point teenagers in the right direction. Popular culture can be a great starting point for deep conversations. Take Harry Potter - he died and came back to life, and that's totally fictional, but hey, there is someone in real life who died and rose from the dead, and that's Jesus!
  We can also celebrate the good in popular culture, because it's not all bad. Just because something is non-Christian doesn't necessarily mean it's completely evil. But we do have to be uncompromising in our stance against the bad.

So really, popular culture is something positive that can be used (in the right way) to relate people to God.

By the way, I thought the photo about how 'God is too big to fit into one religion' made no sense. It was interesting that someone had that perspective, but if you think about it, all the religions of the world have different ways of portraying God and what you have to do to be 'accepted' into their religion.