Hi all Everything has to be cool doesn't it. I think this is a disturbing trend. I think it's time we rejected the whole notion of 'coolness' and by 'we' I don't just mean the church but the entire society. Coolness (or it's co-word fashion) is about conformity, it's about saying, this is good, the majority have decided that this is a good thing and if you want to be accepted you have to go along with it. If you do, have or believe anything that is not this then you are not cool and therefore excluded. Now because it is a highly changing phenomenon everyone goes along with it in the hope that at some point they can be the trend setter for a little while and determine what's cool. And let's not pretend that this is limited to young people, this is do with the human desire for social acceptance which is universal, though young people do seem to be more susceptible to it I guess because they tend to be less secure in themselves. Let's make social acceptance universal by accepting everyone.
I was struck by a quote from Guy Sebastian's Pastor in the first article Peter sent us: "There are a lot of positive peer pressure messages in what he is saying," Suddenly peer pressure is a good thing! because 'it's the right sort of peer pressure' in other words it's a tool and if we can use it then it's a good thing, but if 'bad people' use it then it's a bad thing. This is exactly the same as George Bush going after Saddam Hussein for having WMDs, it's the 'we're good, they're evil' phenomenon. Let's wake up to ourselves and realise that such tools of coercive power are bad in anyone's hands. We should be encouraging people to think for themselves and make their own decisions, yes we can challenge each other about things but in a way that leaves people open to making their own decisions. Coolness by it's nature is anti-pluralistic, it's wants us all to look the same, act the same, have the same things, believe the same things etc and it's driven by anybody trying to sell anything they try to convince one person it's valuable to by saying it's valuable to another and so we lose sight of any value it might have in it's own right, which is what really matters. By worrying about what's cool and what's not we only give fashion more power. So let's not try and be cool, let's not try and be uncool, let's try and be ourselves and relegate coolness to irrelevance. That's what I think anyway James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ellis, LCDR Peter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 15:10 Subject: sec: unclassified - "Just gimmicks or can religion rock" > > Maybe Guy (Idol) Sebastian *has* made God cool again. > > "Has Guy made God cool again" By Vivienne Oakley, November 21, 2003 Daily > Telegraph > http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7931582%255E13780,00.html > <http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7931582%255E13780,00.html> > > > which is why, today, we find the Daily Telegraph seems attracted to the idea > that religion is worth talking about .... > > "Just gimmicks or can religion rock " 18/12/03 > CHURCH attendances more than double at Christmas, but traditional religions > still struggle to attract regular devotees while hipper churches are > flourishing. Is a rock band, hip language and an "awesome" experience the > answer? RACHEL MORRIS reports. > http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1269&storyid=654697 > <http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1269&storyid=654697> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
