Hip Emerging Dude "Freaked Out" by Terms like Born Again

Rob Fee

Relevant, the magazine for hip emerging Christians, has a new report by Rob Fee on “11 Phrases that Freaked Me Out as a Kid.” These include “the Lamb that was slain,” “washed in the blood,” “on fire for God,” the Holy Ghost,” “born again,” “I’m not of this world,” “the Lamb’s book of life,” “the devil as a roaring lion,” and “guard your heart.” Of “the Lamb that was slain,” Fee remarks, “As a kid, when I heard everyone celebrating the murder of sheep, I really began to get nervous about taking friends from church to the petting zoo.” Of the Holy Ghost, Fee says, “My mom tried to explain it as part of the Trinity, but that definitely didn't help. ‘You see, honey, God is the guy in charge, Jesus is His son, and the Holy Ghost is, uh, their pal. Technically, God is Jesus’ dad, but they all join forces to become one. It’s kind of like Planeteers from Captain Planet, except it’s not a sin to watch TV shows about them.’” Of “washed in the blood,” Fee comments, “I pictured Jesus standing next to a giant bathtub that He was bleeding into while trying to make me dive into it like a Steven Curtis Chapman song in ’99.” And of “the Lamb’s book of life,” Fee says, “Is this the same lamb we killed earlier? Now it seems as though murdering him wasn't enough, we’re also going to take his books. How about we just leave the farm animals alone for a bit, OK, pastor? It’s making me legitimately sad.” I suppose it doesn't get more hip than making comedy out of the new birth, ridiculing washed in the blood and the Lamb’s book of life, and mocking the Trinity. Relevant magazine claims to “reach about 2,300,000 twenty- and thirty-something Christians a month.” It is a window into 2 Timothy 4:3-4 Christianity.

(Friday Church News Notes, February 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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