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you
said the "p" word
by
john o'keefe
whenever
I hear everclear's "am radio" and I have major flash
backs to the late 70's..........wavy-lines........wavy-lines......... wavy-lines............
my
best friend dicky and I would spend hours thinking we were
cool by cruising the local
strip in sarasota florida looking for one "hot lady" - not that any
young lady would have anything to do with two pimpled faced, dweeby,
overweight teens wiring
plat formed shoes and driving their father's car. but the world
was good, and we were blind to the realities, besides, our hormones were in full
gear (as evident by the lunar landscape on our faces).
but something happened on one of those "trips" that
changed my life forever. at that moment I can say I went
from "just a teen" to a true man - it was the day I heard the
greatest song ever sung by man - it was pure, simple, powerful and most
of all - it was something so new, so different I knew my life was
changed. From that point on I was a new "man"- it was queen's
"bohemian rhapsody."
I
remembered getting so excited by the song I needed to share my
excitement with someone other then dicky - dicky was my best friend, but
we had both experienced the song together and I needed to share it with
more people. I remember running into my house shouting, "I
just heard the best f****** song ever."
as
if my timing could be any more poignant, as I ran into the house
screaming, my mother's jaw dropped to the floor - our company, three
baptist's from the local church on a door to door mission to requite new
members, the two women gasped for
air, and the men stood in anger - they all excused themselves, walking
out the door mumbling something about "single moms and the brats
they raise." just then, as if to add insult to the injury, my
little sister ran around the house chanting, "johnny said the
"f" word, johnny said the "f" word."
the
reaction of the visitors, my mother and mostly my kid sister printed
itself on my mind that when ever I mention I am a "postmodern
theologian" I get the same results - old baptist women gasp, old
baptist men get anger and
church people chant "johnny said the "p" word, johnny
said the "p" word."
this
fear of the postmodern reality is simple and pure. moderns just
don't get it, and when ever we try to explain to them what it's all
about - they run away chanting "the p word" chant. there
"not getting it" I believe is based on basic differences in
our thinking patterns:
logical/experience
moderns
tend to bank on the logic of science - it's the difference between spock,
from the old star track and "7 of 9," from voyager. spock always tried
to hide his human half with his drive to maintain his logic half.
while 7 of 9 tries to experience life - with coxing at first - and when
she does she puts her all into the experience, even to the point of
making mistakes - she buys into the process 110%, giving all she has to
the process.
truth/real
modern
minds search for "truth" - the "truth"
they find they claim is absolute. while a postmodern
mind is not seeking for "truth" we are seeking for
what is real - because for us, it does not matter what you
claim is "truth" if you are not living it, it is not
real. you can tell me all the time that jesus said he
was "the truth" and it has zero meaning to me if you
are not living a christ-like life.
directions/mapping
moderns
like to give directions, "to travel from folsom
california to rockford illinois you need to do the
following...." but in a postmodern reality, we are
not looking for directions, and no it does not matter how many
times you took the trip (sorry). our desire is to be
given a map (it's our visual nature - we need maps). let
us see where we are, where we are going and then let us plan
the best trip for us - and that trip will be different for
each traveler. our destination will be the same, just we
may want to make different stops along the trail.
linear/overlapping
moderns
tend to put things in lines, postmoderns tend to let things overlap.
a good example is a friday night out with the gang - we just let the
movement of the time carry us to our destination - you see we know where
we want to end-up and we are very open to letting the experience move us
along - always keeping in mind the destination. moderns tend to have a rigid plan, complete with
timetables - a focused and driven plan with very little, if any, play in
the system.
either,
or/both, and, also
moderns
tend to see things in black and white - you either pick this, or you
pick that. postmoderns see all the great shades of color (notice I
did not say, "shades of gray") that life
can offer - picking is hard, because we want it all.
institutional/organic
for
moderns - bigger is better; all they are is connected to the
institution. I remember talking with a women, in her 50's, and her
son. her son asked if a "catholic" was a "christian"?
- I said "yes" - too which his mother added, "but we are
catholic first."
church/kingdom
the
modern church tends to see things in terms of average number of people
they can "attract" to their worship service - while postmoderns
tend to try to increase the kingdom. moderns try to get you to go
to their church - after all, they got it right. postmoderns could
care less where you worship - just worship. I was recently
speaking with a member of a mainline church who had questioned the way
his church kept membership records. his concerned centered on the
fact that on any given sunday there were 50 people in church, yet the
"membership" books indicated the church had over 300
people. when he approached his pastor about the numbers, he was
told "not to worry and to trust that the church knew what it was
doing."
think
different/be different
modern
churches want you to develop a different thinking pattern, while
postmodern teachings say you must be different. we don't tend to
be "checkbook" people, we tend to be "date-book"
people, we want more then just to write a check, we want to get dirty in
the ministry - like the classic line
from "the rocky horror picture show" - "do think here, be
here."
now,
there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being modern, or even
anti-postmodern. I simply see it as a last ditch desire to control
the uncontrollable. you see, change is coming - change is the
nature of life . everything changes; if it is living it grows, if
is dead it decays. I have noticed that the modern form of
rejection follows a set pattern -
attack the theology; when that fails, attack the music; when that fails,
attack the look; when that fails, attack the style of the ministry; when
that fails - run around the room waiving your arms chanting - "you
said the p word, you said the p word."
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