The Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 3, Ed. 1, Wednesday, September 12, 1990 Page: 2 of 4
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Richard's Nameless Colum
nai
Life in the Sub-Culture
by Richard Ruanc
The amazing thing about the English
language is the speed with which it makes
nouns into adjectives. A good example is
the word Christian. Originally Christian
meant someone who knew and followed
Jesus Christ. Whether you were talking
about the Apostle Paul or Mary Jones in
211 Wonderland apartments to say some-
one was a Christian meant he or she had
some kind of living relationship with the
Lord. The word's first step into the adjecti-
val use was to describe people to talk
about this Christian person or that Chris-
tian person to talk about a person who was
a Christian. Well then we decided to add to
the word's meaning a little we began to
use the word Christian to describe things
which were unique or marked the Chris-
tian's world view. We began to talk about
Christian values Christian perspectives
Christian ethics Christian morality and
Christian theology. Soon we began to
attach the word to things which were used
to support Christianity and its world view.
We desired for our youth and children to
have a Christian education and established
Christian schools we had our Christian
ministers study Christian books.
So slowly step by step we emerged
into the present-day Christian sub-culture.
We sit in our homes and read our Christian
books which we bought from our Christian
book store or Christian book club. We lis-
ten to Christian music by Christian artists
played on our local Christian radio station.
When we're bored we pick up Christian
romance novels or read Christian myster-
ies. On weekends we attend Christian
retreats and take vacations to go to Chris-
tian conferences. We wear Christian t-
shirts to our jobs at Christian organiza-
tions and when work's over we slip off to
a Christian nightclub. Christian children
play with Christian toys and Christian
comic books. Living in a world where
Christian tea-bags Christian bedspreads
and Christian designer jeans are right
around the corner the honest seeker can
only reach one conclusion: friends we've
managed to get ourselves into a Christian
rut. What is our problem?
1) The first problem we encounter is
probably the least obvious. We've taken
the word Christian and we've totally lost
its real meaning. Somewhere between the
romance novel and the sweatshirt we seem
to have misplaced the fact that Christianity
means being thrown at Christ's feet where
by some miracle of divine grace we are
transformed from something fallen and
broken into something whole complete
and most importantly beautiful wonder-
ful and true.
2) The second problem is that we've
slowly begun to reduce everything to a
pragmatic value. In calling something a
painting or poem or whateverChristian
we're really making a value judgment on
whether or not it in and of itself preaches
a sermon. I'll be the first to admit it the
pragmatic value of something is important
but it Isn't all there is. The immediate
results a thing produces are not the mea-
sure of the whole. Is it any wonder that all
of our artistic endeavors from songs to
novels could be boiled down to a gospel
tract? We've immersed our selves into one
Duane Simolke editor
Leigh Ann Whiddon asst. editor
Rick Hope newsfeatures editor
Tim Baker layoutdesign editor
Carey Alderson sports editor
Rick Schochler religion editor
Jonathan Owen chief photographer
Shawnie Maffctt reporter
Courtney Sewell reporter
Richard Ruanc criticcolumnist
Kevin Burllcld critic
Angela Magee business manager
Randy Armstrong advisor
The Brand is a non-profit student newspaper published during the fall and spring semesters
under the direction of the Hardin-Simmons University Department of Communication. It serves
as a laboratory project and a forum for student views and opportunities.
Editorial opinions are those of the paper and not necessarily those of the university or
administration. Signed columns and letters represent the personal views of student authors.
Send letters or announcements to The Brand Drawer P Hardin-Simmons University Abilene
Texas 79698. All HSU students are encouraged to .send "Student Letters."
The Brand is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and the Southwest
Journalism Congress.
Design and layout is done with a Commodore AMIGA 2000 computer
basis of evaluation: "will it preach?"
We've forgotten the value of truth beauty
and mystery simply because we have
decided that judging by the fruits means
judging by the immediate result. How
mush longer will it be be tore we move
beyond judging a T-shirt's worth by its h
evangelistic turn-out rate to setting our-
selves up to judge a person's worth by his
evangelistic turn-out rate?
3) The last and most important prob-
lem is that we've totally removed our-
selves from the very world which we're
supposed to be salt and light in. Please
don't get me wrong I'm glad there are
Christian universities. I attend one and it
has been a fantastic part of my life. Chris-
tian music and books have meant a lot to
me. I think the Bible teaches that Chris-
tians should live in a sort of sub-culture
the Bxk of Acts calls it the Church. But
we've taken everything God ever meant
for the Church to be and we've made it
into some kind of spiritual race to see who
can best keep up with St. Jones. We spend
our time and money to buy the things the
world has with the excuse that these signs
of materialism wear Christian labels. I
guess the problem is that we've decided to
be of the world but not in it. We've turned
into a sort of alienated club instead of
being the dynamic community that trans-
forms everything it touches.
Well I'll be the last to pretend that
anything I've just said could actually
answer any questions much less that any '
of it even makes sense. I first intended to
write this and use all my skill as an intel-
lectual giant to solve everything I've men-
tioned but I realized I'd only end up mak-
ing myself into a first class hypocrite. I
hope God has spoken to you in spite of all
my arrogance. He's spoken to me. I hope
that God can bring us all back into his
imaae.
Staff View
Christians Should Love
by Rick Hope
"Love your neighbor as yourself1
that's what the scripture says. What does
that mean to you? I have to be honest.
Sometimes I think there are some students
who don't know what that scripture actual-
ly means. What I mean to say is that I
(Cont. on page 4)
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The Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 3, Ed. 1, Wednesday, September 12, 1990, newspaper, September 12, 1990; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth97505/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library.