Through A Glass Darkly

“Every year, tens of thousands of participants gather to create Black Rock City in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, dedicated to self-expression, self-reliance, and art as the center of community. They leave one week later, having left no trace.” This is taken from the website promoting the Burning Man Project. You can go there for more information about this yearly festival. The point I want to make about this has to do with the opening of a book entitled, The Shaping of Things To Come written by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Hendrickson Publishers, 2003). The Australian authors begin the first chapter of the book by discussing the the significance of the annual event and why it is popular. Why do people flock to this art festival every year? What is the attraction? Frost’s and Hirsch’s answer…postmodern people want “Belonging”, “Survival”, “Empowerment”, “Sensuality”, “Celebration”, and “Liminality”(the transitional period or phase of a rite of passage, during which the participant lacks social status or rank, remains anonymous, shows obedience and humility, and follows prescribed forms of conduct, dress, etc.). Apart from wondering if these are actually new desires particularly peculiar to the “postmodern era” I want to address (briefly) why all of this is important to the authors in the first place.

Listen to the second paragraph of the first chapter,

“Although Christians might be tempted to focus on and condemn Burning Man’s patently pagan elements–the near-deification of art, nature, and the individual, not to mention the quasi-sacred rite in which both a human effigy and “confessional cards” are burned–we should rather examine what takes place at Burning Man in order to learn why thousands of people flock to the event every year. It is actually quite easy to denigrate Burning Man as a counterfeit religious experience, but Christians who content themselves with this will never understand what exactly draws participants to live under the Man’s watchful gaze in Black Rock Desert. They will never discover what people today are searching for and thus will never offer the authentic spiritual experience that people crave.” (p.3-4)

Two quick thoughts regarding this paragraph. First, did you notice the use of the word “rather” in the opening sentence? Although a Christian might be tempted to focus on the pagan elements of the festival we should rather examine the reasons why people go there. Interesting. I really don’t want to be too hard on these guys, I am sure they would make qualifications if asked, but “rather?” Christians should rather examine the whys of sin than pointing out the sin. What would this approach to “mission” look like if we were to apply it to the Israelites about to go into Canaan? “Don’t bother occupying your mind with the fact that these people commit bestiality, sodomy, incest, child sacrifice, etc., rather try to understand why they give themselves to these things.” Oh, I know. I know. I can’t compare the Canaanites with the Burning Man festival. Israel had a direct word from God to execute judgment on them, and we obviously don’t have the same in regard to our pagan culture. But let me ask a question, when do we ever see a prophet, apostle, missionary, etc., rather than noticing, naming and condemning sin in a given society seek to “understand” why that society sins. Paul at Athens probably gets the closest when he declares to the idolatrous people the truth about the “unknown God” (Acts 17). However, I believe Paul makes just the point I am trying to make here,

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

I am not saying that we should not try to understand the whys behind the whats. We should try to understand why people sin so that we may better understand their needs as they perceive them. I just happen to think that the whys are not that difficult to determine and pretty much stay the same across time and culture…we are in fact made in the image of God. The real issue I have is that I continually find a de-emphasis on judgment in a great deal of missional literature, and not simply future judgment, but present judgments as well.

The second issue has to do with the statement that unless Christians properly identify these needs in the postmodern individual we can “never offer the authentic spiritual experience that people crave.” With all due respect, so what? If we are talking about the “authentic spiritual experience” of Christianity, then it is what it is. It is not adaptable to the “cravings” of postmodern, modern, premodern, etc. humanity. It seems to me that if Christians are living like Christians in fellowship and love for one another, submission to authority, communion with God, service of others, we have all we need to demonstrate to any culture the “authentic spiritual experience.”

Maybe I am making something out of nothing. I certainly am not trying to. I really believe this stuff is missing the mark in some pretty significant ways, by either de-emphasizing where the bible seems to emphasize or minimizing the Christian witness for not being culturally savvy enough.

Just some random thoughts. Think about it.