What’s worse than “Hipsters?"...

… their critics. Caustic, sarcastic, jaded, and proud of it, these people believe that because they are able to identify trends, they are elevated above critique themselves. Now there’s a reason that I have stock in this.

·         I like plaid and flannel

·         I wear a stylish beard

·         If I had the money I’d be covered in tattoos

·         My wife and I drive a Prius

·         We live in the city

·         We like beer

·         I like early 90’s grunge and modern alternative music

·         We share a deep conviction that the Gospel means far more than the eternal location of our souls

So yes, I get a little pissy when someone caricatures and undermines some convictions that we’ve arrived at in a dismissive, disrespectful, judgmental, arrogant fashion so as to elevate themselves above its reaches.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind critique and I don’t mind being defined. I realized that my convictions are not new, and that this has been occurring in many a generation.

 As Mark Baker points out: 

“I thought I had come a long way from my high school legalism until I sat in a Bible class in 1984 and watched the professor put my life on the board. He drew a line that angled uphill: “Many evangelical students see their life as a progression from the legalism of their youth to a more mature Christianity that stresses issues of lifestyle and justice and explores authentic Christianity. It appears they have moved forward.” Then he drew a circle and wrote “legalism,” “simple lifestyle,” freedom to drink” and “issues of justice” at different points. “They move along, but they are not going anywhere. They just change one means of judging themselves as superior for another (Baker 35 – “Religious No More”).” 

I do not want to think myself superior because of some new convictions. I do not want to trade one form of legalism for another. I am aware of this. But while myself, and people like me get critiqued for being trendy, the critics are not even aware that they have fallen into an even deeper cyclical trend. 

I know this because I used to do it. If I could only find out what the rest of the world was doing, whether it be philosophically, socially, religiously and so on, I could criticize it.

As C.S. Lewis stated:

‎"to 'see through' all things is the same as not to see". (My friend Tim Koller posted this – it seems that our brains are in sync)

So when I hear people scoff now at things like social justice, or stating that hipsters are a bunch of upper middle class white hypocrites, I take offense. 

I take offense because I’ve seen poverty while in Cambodia, and it haunts my dreams. I’ve seen the injustices our nation propagates. And yes I am white, and yes I am upper middle class, but guess what: I moved into the “Ward,” I befriended people who do not look like me and who make me uncomfortable. I smoke what I sell. Yet, for some reason, these caustic Christians look just like me, are my monetary and racial peers. What causes have they taken up in the name of Christ that enables them to be contentious toward their Christian brethren? 

This is a trend far, FAR WORSE than any “hipster”