The Christian Ghetto

(also known as The Christian Bubble or The Holy Huddle)

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christian Ghetto is a slang term used by many Christians to describe much of popular, mainstream Christianity. As the word ghetto would imply, Christians have isolated themselves from the world, and have created a distinct Christian culture, with its own language (Christianese), its own music, its own clothing, etc. The Christian Ghetto results from a mentality that sees any exposure to the non-Christian world as defiling. But perhaps most of the Christians stuck in the Christian Ghetto are there unintentionally - they simply spend too much time with Christians, and take in only Christian music, television and media.

It may feel comfortable to stay within our Christian "shelter", but this mentality has devastating effects on the Church and evangelism.

* Christians who do not engage the outside world fail to integrate their faith with the real world. They become ineffective at communicating the Good News. They struggle to explain even God's simplest truths in ways a non-Christian can understand.  Just think about how much having a non-Christian friend has taught you about communicating and living out your faith.
* Christians stuck in the ghetto can be so out-of-touch, that they don't even know what cheesy or cliché mean anymore. They don't even realize that their church's worship music is out-of-date, and an object of ridicule. They don't know that the trite "sky and clouds background with gold text" design just doesn't cut it for gospel tract covers or album sleeves anymore. Or they forget how weird religious jargon is, and how annoying and futile a shouted "Jesus loves you!" can be. No wonder so few Christian bands or movies ever get accepted by the non-Christian world. Even after our best efforts, Christian media still misses the mark. Case in point, the rock band P.O.D. is the only Christian cross-over band that I know of that has ever gotten any real acceptance beyond a song or two on the radio. P.O.D., as well as other secular-label Christian bands like U2, Creed, and Lifehouse, could attribute their success, at least partially, to their distancing themselves from the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry and the Christian Ghetto. As Sonny of P.O.D. says, "Thanks, but we really don't want to be part of [CCM]. We're not trying to be part of this little... secret society-type thing."

Or take for example the movie "Left Behind". This was the pride of the Christian Ghetto! The DVD behind-the-scenes had hyped this movie up as a great success, a top-rate evangelism tool and even scheduled it for release in theatres. All it turned out to be was what many critics called a low budget propaganda film starring second-rate, washed-up actors and even worse special effects. The film had a "movie-of-the-week" quality to it, and featured some terrible music choices (like the funky boy-group-style pop in the DVD's menu, which considering the serious apocalyptic nature of the movie, seemed painfully inappropriate).

* Christians that shut themselves in from the outside world also inevitably make non-Christians feel alienated. I have witnessed on many occasions, non-Christians feeling totally out-of-place as Christians around them discussed their favorite Christian artists. When Christians deny their surrounding culture - when they don't know anything about popular music artists, the latest movies or fashions - they risk losing all common ground with the non-Christians they hope to befriend and win. And that's terrible, considering that 9 out of 10 people come to Messiah as a direct result of relationships!

AlexYefetov

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