I have been working at a Christian bookstore for a few months now and have had several thoughts. One, the Christian community tries to hard to copy the world. There is a card game called Redemption that is an imitation of Magic and other card games. There movies that are imitations of the comedies like Pineapple Express and action movies like The Bone Collector. There are books that imitate the popular series of Patterson and King. They all seem pale comparisons of these works though. I do not think we should be copying the works of the world, we should be producing our own art based on our own beliefs. When we try to imitate the world and fail the world just looks at us and laughs. These pale imitations tend to drive more people away and marginalize the Christian community rather than win people over to Christ, which should be the goal of all the work Christians produce. This is not to say all the movies and books that have been produced are poor. There are some high quality movies like One Night With the King, that tells the story of Esther. These movies and books are what needs to be continued to be produced.
Two, I am amazed at some of the products we sell. There are religious hand lotions, candies, pens, pencils, the list goes on. These items make me wonder if people are not just slapping Jesus’s name on an item just to sell it. Like the Steve Taylor song says, we have made Jesus a franchise in the food courts.
Three, Christian stores also hasten the isolation of the Christian community from the world. We have developed a completely separate culture. We need to engage the world. Challenge the pre-conceived notions the world has of Christians as being stuck up and holier than though. We are no better or worse than a non-Christian. Acting as if we are confirms the idea in peoples minds that we are hypocrites, which if we are acting like we are better then we are hypocrites.
Four, there are many good Christian music artists that are ignored by mainstream radio. I believe this is a direct result of the isolation the Christian community has cultivated.
I have met many good people through working at the store though. I have had some good conversations with customers ans staff. So, the experience has not been too bad. Also, I have rediscovered some old friends like Oswald Chambers and Third Day that I have not read or listened to in some time. I have also found some new things I like, but would have never heard otherwise, because I don’t go to bookstores often.
One of the most amazing experiences I had this summer was being able to attend the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that came to Raleigh, and will still be here a couple of months. I learned many things during the tour. I had always heard that the dead sea scrolls had been definitively identified with the Essenes that made their communes around the Dead Sea, particularly Qumran. I never realized the amount of debate about the origins of the scrolls. The exhibit emphasized three sides in the debate. The most compelling and the one many believe is the Essenes brought the scrolls to the commune at Qumran, made copies and hid them in the caves when the Romans invaded the area. Another theory that I find interesting is the idea the scrolls are actually the lost library of the temple in Jerusalem. The theory is this was the hiding place after the temple was destroyed, again by the Romans. Another theory, though less plausible, in my opinion, were the scrolls were hidden here over time, and not at one period. Interesting but not widely held. I personally find the Lost Library theory the most compelling.
Even more debate concerns the actual use of Qumran. The most widely held belief is that the place was a commune of Essenes. Many people point out that there is evidence of families living at Qumran. The Essenes tended to live in single sex communes therefore if there were women and children at Qumran then it could not be an Essene community. The community may have been the people sent to protect the Jerusalem scrolls from being destroyed by the Romans. The most interesting theory is that Qumran was not a commune of any type, but a pottery factory. The evidence some people use to show large numbers of people living at the location also lends itself to this interpretation. In one room they found large groups of clay bowls and cups. Many saw this as the kitchen area of the commune, but in the factory theory, these clay vessels were just the products of the factory waiting to be shipped. It is interesting.
Personally I believe we will never fully understand why the scrolls were hidden there, but it is fun to speculate. I think I can believe the lost library theory. It is compelling and cool to think these are temple artifacts.
I was reading one of my favorite authors Terry Pratchett when I came upon a quote about atheism. The dialogue goes like this:
“Atheism Is Also A Religious Position,” Dorfl rumbled.
“No it’s not!” said Constable Visit. “Atheism is a denial of a god.”
“Therefore It Is A Religious Position,” said Dorfl. “Indeed, A True Atheist Thinks Of The Gods Constantly, Albeit In Terms Of Denial. Therefore, Atheism Is A Form Of Belief. If The Atheist Truly Did Not Believe, He Or She Would Not Bother To Deny.”*
My point summed up exactly. Pratchett is a proclaimed atheist and he seems to get the point that Atheism is a belief system. What annoys me about atheists in general is, they do not want to be identified by as having a belief system. They don’t seem to understand there is just as much faith in the denial of God as there is in proclaiming his existence. They tend to couch their beliefs in the terms of reason, which is a belief system that requires faith in mans innate goodness. I’m not sure man is innately good. If man is good, than what drags him down to the level of violence and selfishness that we see from most people? Why does he not continue to be good? I would like to get some answers to that question.
(*Dorfl is a golem. Pratchett distinguishes his speech by capitalizing every word)