SCCL #4

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/4-homeschooling.html

I've never been homeschooled...at least in the traditional sense.  I went to public schools, but outside of school my parents designed supplementary projects for my younger sister and I to do so we weren't stuck in front of the  tv all the time.

I graduated from high school in 2006 and homeschooling wasn't really that common in my hometown despite it being a bastion of Christian Culture-ites. Rather than homeschool their kids, CC parents sent their kids to public school and tried to influence the schools to what they wanted.  As a result, I didn't learn about evolution until college and had to learn about sex via medical sites and from experienced friends, for example.

There were a few families that homeschooled, but rarely for religious reasons.  If a kid was at least partly homeschooled, it was often because he or she had a learning problem that the school wasn't addressing or the kid was intentionally slacking off and Mom and Dad homeschooled them for a semester to make them focus.

Given that, at least when I was in school, at least a few families seemed to use the public schools as essentially a baby-sitting service and the CC-ites had great sway on what is taught, I highly doubt homeschooling will really catch on around here.

SCCL #3

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/3-coldplay.html

Ah, Coldplay.  Despite their winning a crazy amount of awards, they're the band it's fun to hate on.  According to Facebook, 48 of my Facebook friends are fans of Coldplay, and a decent number of them can be considered Christian Culture types.

Now, I know a lot of people do like Coldplay.  I'll even admit to listening to them every once in a while.  But why do so many evangelicals/CC-ers like them?

Quite frankly, they're safe.  Chris Martin himself once called them "limestone rock": they're rock but they're not offensive.  There's nothing there that would normally piss off a CC-er unless they have some opposition to rock music.  The only controversy I can recall about them are allegations of plagiarism from Joe Satriani, who I doubt most Christian Culture types have even heard of (which is a shame for them). My cousins who are textbook examples of Christian Culture guys LOVE Coldplay, for instance, and it's something I could play on family get-togethers with  the CC side of the family and my immediate family's more liberal wing.

Plus, the music is pretty catchy and, unless you're a serious hater, not horrible.  Which is way more than I can say about Christian contemporary music.  If you're not aware of Christian contemporary music, take a pop song that didn't quite make a major singer's album, scrub it clean of sexual references, liberally insert references to Jesus, God, and various religious imagery, and have it performed by a singer who is decent but not quite the caliber of many mainstream performers.   Comparatively, Coldplay is fracking genius.

I have a strong feeling that if my class ever does have a 5 year reunion, there's going to be some Coldplay playing.

SSCL #1 & #2

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/1-day-timers.html

The topic for this post is...Day-Timers.  And how prevalent they are among Evangelicals.

...Frack.  I actually don't know much about this.  I mean, I know people who own Day-Timers, but I've never been able to see how they relate to evangelical culture.

Let's try another post.

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/2008/08/2-sending-emails-that-are-supposedly.html

Okay, here we go.  Granted, since my family is not really into Christian Culture (my mom is Roman Catholic and my dad is quasi-Baptist), they don't get these that frequently.  And while a number of my high school classmates have been busy producing kids, most of my undergrad and law school classmates, who I keep in better contact with, have not.  But, every so often, Mom and Dad will get a holiday card from a Christian Culture relative with a cutesy message supposedly written by their young kid.  Or one of my high school classmates with a young child will post something written by them on their Facebook.

I know it's supposed to be cute, but really it's kind of ridiculous.  Three year old Johnny doesn't have the sophisticated vocabulary to say how much he enjoys learning about the Lord now that he's in Sunday School.  He probably doesn't even understand why he's even there.  It's quite dumb, yet people immersed in evangelical culture think it's the most adorable thing ever.

If I have kids later on down the road and send out stuff like this, please shoot me.

Stuff Christian Culture Likes

I love Stuff Christian Culture Likes.  I really do.  I live in the state of Ohio (as to where I'm not saying) and it seems like the stuff talked about on that blog is taken exactly from my life here.  It's crazy.

If you're not familiar with SCCL, it's a blog maintained by Stephanie Drury that discusses aspects of American Christian Evangelical culture (termed "Christian Culture") in the style of Stuff White People Like.  To quote the blog, "Christian culture is funny because it doesn't have much (if anything) to do with Christ himself."  I would even go out to say that much of Christian Culture is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ, but that's a whole 'nother story.  


Anywho, since I love the blog a lot AND need to start posting more on here, I've decided to provide my commentary for some of the posts on SCCL.  I may not be a Christian Culture person (though I am Christian), but I've seen a lot of this stuff in my daily life since I was twelve.

BTW, here's the site link if anyone's interested: http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/

Hey, Look, I Didn't Post for like a Month.

Yeah, long time no see.  I've been hard at work at applying for Law Review during the month of June so I didn't think about blogging.  But I'm done and hoping I made it on as an editor.  *crosses fingers*