Proving there is nothing new under the sun that entrepreneurial Christians won’t want to slap a “Jesus fish” on, today marks the emergence of www.ChristianChirp.com, a social media site that is to Twitter what Fireproof is to Citizen Kane.
Yes, “chirping” is annoying. Yes, it’s pretty silly. Yes, it’s beyond a joke how ghetto-ized evangelicals prefer to be. (GodTube, anyone?)
And yet, the only thing lamer than Christians aping the world (poorly) is Christians who think this is the cardinal sin. I wouldn’t have known about ChristianChirp until someone mentioned it on Twitter. I thought its creation rather amusing in its predictability. Then someone else mentioned it. Then several people mentioned it all. dang. day.
My sympathies were transferred. I no longer thought ChristianChirp was so bad. Instead I flashed back to those church-produced Mac vs. PC parodies that posited differences between a “Christian” and a “Christ follower.” The difference of course is that the Christian listened to CCM and wore a tie, while the Christ-follower wore jeans and listened to U2. Don’t you get it, people? There are Christians, and then there are cool Christians, and the regular Christians are ruining it for everyone. Testamints are ruining Christianity!
Ahem.
My friend Bill Roberts, my fellow blogger at the RC Cola of Christian group blogs, The Thinklings, calls this phenomenon I Have Identified the Problem, and It is You.
It reminds me of a great post by a former fellow of the Boar’s Head Tavern blog, A Toast to the Low-Minded Christian by Judson Heartsill (archived at Thinklings, as well).
A good number of the cool kids have effectively said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and “I have no need of you.” All of us, however, ought to have love for all the saints, even the dorky ones.
Look, it’s possible Jesus needs new PR, but I seriously doubt those who’ve accepted Jesus in their snark are the ones who should be providing it.
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