Putting the FUN back in Christian Fundamentalism

On Monday night, I was watching the news with my parents. There was a news story about an American student from a Christian school being barred from graduation for attending prom at a secular high school. (You can read about it here). I don't actually have much to say about this event in particular (because I don't know the guy and I don't know the school), but I want to talk about why it made me sad to see it being reported. I suspect this news item was included for broadcast on Australian television only for its sensationalist value. Christian Fundamentalism receives a lot of bad press... actually, bad press is the only kind of press it does receive. When Christians contribute to something good which the community notices, the Christian part is usually cut off from the news reports.

For the last two years, I have gone on Summer Projects with the Christian group at uni I am involved in. Both years, I went to Lorne which is the beach town on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria where Schoolies is held each year for the Victorian kids (much like the Gold Coast for NSW & QLD students). For those two weeks, we serve God by serving the Schoolies - we set up sports games and BBQs by day and run a drop-in-centre in the evenings with pool and table tennis tables, poker and card games, guitar and open mic, manicures and pedicures and provide food and drinks in a safe and alcohol-and-drug-free environment.

We also openly share our faith with these kids not because we want to shove religious dogma down their throats but because hearing the gospel of Christ was the single most amazing thing that ever happened to us and continues to transform our lives such that we can't help but share our source of strength, comfort, purpose and joy. That God is real, that He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us and that we can have this personal and amazing relationship with Him because Jesus has paid and fully dealt with our sins (past, present and future) and thus bridged the gap between us and God. We know this to be true and have experienced the forgiveness and love of God's saving grace and that is why we share about what God has done and continues to do in our lives.

We're only a small group, but by God's grace and providence, last year we were officially included in the Schoolies program and had a fantastic site to run our drop-in-centre. A much bigger Christian group also present is the Red Frogs, who we get along with swimmingly. They usually make it on to the news because of the large-scale services that they tirelessly and selflessly provide the Schoolies: first aid assistance, free water and red frogs (of course), rides back home to their accommodation at early hours of the morning, free breakfasts and clean up service and so on. The grateful Aussie community rates these guys and gives them a pat on the back. The Aussie media reports their good deeds, but not their motivation. They cut God out.

So the only portrait of Christianity we get in the media is pretty much of mega-boring, super-strict Christian Fundamentalists who tolerate nothing, shows grace to no one, deprive children of life experiences and take the fun out of worshipping God and living life, all in the name of Jesus. People think of Christianity as suppressing and depressing. This is pretty much the opposite of my experience with Christianity. I don't think I've ever had so much fun in my life or been so free

♫ my chains are gone, I've been set free ♪ My God, my Saviour has ransomed me ♫ and like a flood, his mercy reigns ♪ unending love, amazing grace ♫ - Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone).

For the first time in my life, I feel secure and significant because I have my identity in Christ. This doesn't mean that I've lost all personality (I know some of you will debate whether I had any in the first place) and turned into a God-fearing zombie. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight - Proverbs 9:10. And this wisdom and insight has led me to the fact that God created me, unique, and He loves me, unconditionally, so that I finally feel free to be me.

♥ I would consider myself a Christian Fundamentalist (in that I don't subscribe to Christian liberalism as I don't think we can pick and choose what we want to believe in... I'm only interested in knowing God on His terms).
♥ I listen to rock music, more than any other kind. (I hate it being referred to as "the devil's music").
♥ I read my Bible. And I read other books.
♥ I dance - well, I jump around at least. And I have bucketloads of fun.
♥ I love God and by His grace and the work of His spirit I try to lead an authentic life pleasing to Him.

On our last night in Lorne, we came together - not just as a Christian group, but more like a family - and had a massive dinner and dance party. I was amongst brothers and sisters, safe in the knowledge that the girls were not going to socially ostracise me on account of my fashion sense and that the guys were not going to be sleazy or manipulate me into doing what they want. We had tremendous fun (I especially love the image of 4 rows of crazily happy Christians doing the Nutbush in front of big glass doors and can only imagine what passers-by were thinking). A few Schoolies tried to join us but we couldn't let them in as our drop-in-centre service had officially concluded. Disappointed, one Schoolie parted saying that our party was way cooler than the lame farewell dance party they threw down at the only pub in town.

While I personally may not be the funnest person ever, take my word for it: Christianity is not restrictive and it is not boring. Just so you know, I have, and love, friends who've flown planes, fire-twirled and sky dived, or have tattoos and piercings, or have scars and metal plates in them from skateboarding accidents... and the same applies to those who spend their days making physics puns or who practice the seemingly dated but continually awesome art of knitting too! ;) Whatever way, knowing God is the most extreme life experience you'll get. It'll get your heart a-pumping and your blood a-flowing and you'll be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Christians are not boring because they're full of (eternal) life. Christianity is not boring because Christ is not boring.

♫ Jesus was a rebel, a renegade, outlaw ♪ sanctified troublemaker but He never sinned, naw ♫ and He lived His life by a different set of rules... ♪ yeah that's the God I roll with ♫ - Lecrae - Rebel intro.

Yeah. That's the God I roll with.