Adam McLane

Gag me with a Christian Spoon

I ran across this story over on Marko’s blog. Things like this make me absolutely sick, but it’s true… people are developing Christian-themed subdivisions. Two excerpts are puke-worthy:

Near the entrance, before the road turns to reveal new homes starting
at $400,000, a restored chapel sits under the shade of trees. [Read the article]

It’s good to know that Christians aren’t mixing with the riff-raff that buy houses under $400,000. I mean, if you can’t swing a mortgage payment of $3000 or more, God isn’t blessing you. Excuse me while I run to the bathroom.

But their developments seem to be trying to sell a certain way of life.
They’re mixed-use developments, meaning commercial businesses will go
in with the homes, but there are restrictions as to what can go in
these areas. Banks and gas stations are going up, but don’t expect to
see anything that caters strictly to vices.

"Of course we’ll
have some restaurant locations here, but no bars. No massage parlors.
Nothing like that that would be damaging to people’s character, as part
of our restrictions," he said.

This type of mixed-development is just a bad idea. Forcing American-Christian morality and sensibilities, notice I didn’t say Biblical morality, into a society just doesn’t work. After all, Jesus wouldn’t want anyone associating with people who frequent bars or massage parlors, would he? Let’s be real… developers develop subdivisions, not the New Jerusalem. It didn’t work for the Puritans and it won’t work in Tennessee. You cannot create sin-free zones where people will make the right life choices. As if Christianity were merely a lifestyle choice? Even if it were a lifestyle choice, this clearly isn’t a God-honoring choice. We know that Jesus was not impressed with the Pharisee’s who did exactly this. Jesus clear does not want his people separating from the world, how come people continue to think this is a good idea? I’m dry heaving here for again.

Of course Joe Swanson, the developer mentioned in the story, got his start as a Jesus-junk peddler. His son now runs Swanson Christian Products where you can buy such essentials of the faith as the Plan of Salvation Band, fish tie tacks, and "I have Jesus in my heart" stress balls. So I suppose this is just a large scale Jesus-junk scheme. To steal a line from John Stassel, give me a break!

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3 responses to “Gag me with a Christian Spoon”

  1. lisabee Avatar
    lisabee

    when i first read the title and not your entry i was like “WHOA!!” but now i soo totally agree. things like that make me soo angry!!

    Reply
  2. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    Just out of curiousity why does stuff like this bother you? Because you cannot afford to live in a community like this, because some Christians actually enjoy spending time with other believers, or is it something else?

    Reply
  3. adam Avatar
    adam

    Yeah, it isn’t about the money. Though the exclusivity of it makes me cringe because it’s in the “name of Jesus” somehow.

    What bothers me about this concept is that Christians aren’t supposed to live in communities like this. It’s just clearly non-biblical in so many ways.

    Let’s take a little trip down church history lane:

    At the same time as Acts 1-2 was happening, in the same neighborhood in Jerusalem, (see Marvin Pates arguement for this in a book called “Communities of the Last Days”) there was a group of apocalyptical seperatists known as the Essenes. They beleived that true followers of The Teacher (not Jesus, but a rabbi they greatly respected) would sell all of their possessions, give it to the group, and live communally in Jerusalem for a while and eventually move out to the desert to live ashtetically. (First 2 years was a test of sorts) Some experts and archaelogists beleive that the followers of Jesus actually lived in an Essene community and rented the Upper Room from them… that’s speculation, but shows the type of parallel.

    This sounds very similar to what was happening at the end of Acts 2, right?

    But get this. The followers of Jesus did not follow the Essene pattern of moving out of the city and creating their own “members only” community. Instead, Acts documents that the early church intentionally fought that sect mentality and instead continued to live within the larger Jewish community as long as they could. Most agree that this continued until the fall of the temple around AD 72.

    In fact, they continued this pattern for a long time. Everywhere the church went they chose to live within the social context for maximum effectiveness. We see exception with the desert fathers and other later monastic movements… but that came much later. The early church clearly and intentionally lived with non-beleivers.

    It wasn’t until St. Augustine wrote “City of God” that the idea of a Christian world and Christian nation and Christian “everything” became something to be aspired to.

    So… I think this is a bad idea because it’s setting up something that is false. Christians, in no way, should chose to live seperately from the world intentionally. When the purpose is to create a comfortable place where Christians will be free from “sinful temptations” it creates a sense of personal holiness based on a zip code that is just a falicy. Look at the Puritan experiment in America… you can’t legislate people to be Christians and you can’t force them to live holy lives…

    I’m not saying this type of thing should be illegal or it’s morally wrong, I just don’t think it’s anything but a man profiteering off of rich Christians desire to live in a false-HOOD.

    Make sense?

    Reply

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