April 01, 2005
Reflections on S*P
In the past few days, since Cynic and Master Ross posted links to Something Positive (S*P)'s Easter mini-series of comics. I'd noticed S*P once or twice before, mostly on the doors of various people at school, but I was intrigued. I started from the beginning and took about two and a half days, reading through just over a thousand comics that have been posted for that site since 2001.
It was definitely an experience. S*P is a very cynical strip laced with black humor, sexual innuendo (and worse), foul language, and a certain bitter edge towards Christians. But it's more than that. Every few strips, some gem pops out of the strip that stops and makes you think. While I'm pretty sure its creator, Milholland, would despise me (he has a rather dim view of people in general and Christians in particular), he's earned my respect. His treatment of Christianity is harsh but just. He also criticizes hypocrisy in any form, praises people willing willing to think and be fair to those different from themselves, and mocks a lot of other subjects that need lampooning. Additionally, it was (to some degree) an excursion outside the "bubble" of LeTourneau and my own cloistered circle of immediate notice.
Part of me is now worried about venturing into the world after college. I think that I'll find a fair number of people who share Milholland's thoughts towards Christians without sharing his fairness. I'll meet people who differ drastically from me in how they speak, how they think, and what they believe. And, after reading a few years' worth of S*P, I have a better idea about what people will respect, what they will listen to, and what they will despise. Quite simply, it is not going to be easy. In reading his work and in my debates on WatchBlog, I've run across some very keen minds that fundamentally disagree with mine. To some extent, I feel knocked off balance. I'm still not quite sure how to conduct myself. At the moment, I'm taking (or trying to) a very meek stance internally, in response to a great deal of criticism of Christians that I am increasingly feeling is justified. Many Christians do tend to be selectively moral, judgmental, rude, and unkind. Our reputation really sucks.
I'm wary of doing anything that might make it worse. I don't want people to see me that way. Even more important, though, is that I really don't want them to see Jesus that way. I don't want them to see Christianity the way they do. But the only way to make people see it any differently is to live it differently. Christians are masters of the talk, but we're ordinary people in the walk. There really isn't any surprise there - Christians are no worse than most people. The sad thing is that they really aren't much better, not on the inside. Actually, I suppose that isn't quite true. I do think that there's a serious difference in our campus from secular campuses, and it isn't all bad. It isn't all judgmentalism and self-righteous hypocrisy. There really is a genuine Christian spirit in some of the people here. Christians really are different ... but not much. And pride chokes our faith and our witness.
And pride catches us all ... especially me. I tend to try to counter it with a sickly-noxious sort of groveling humility. This is also wrong. How in the world can a person develop a quiet dignity and humility?
I think dignity comes from knowing your faith. When you've studied it and researched it and critiqued it and thought about it and still believe it's true, you can have a certain dignity when the world criticizes you. But the awful danger is that it too easily becomes pride, when you stop listening to the world. Dignity is easily faked - pride with a false gilding of humility will do. How do you keep from faking it?
Humility comes from recognizing your sin. Not from merely confessing your sin, but realizing that your heart is twisted. It also comes from honestly respecting the people you want to save. It comes from realizing that many times, non-Christians show Christ better than we do. It comes from realizing that your enemies often have some truth as well. When you realize that, you can humble yourself and ask that they teach it to you. Humility is also easily faked - it's easy to say nice, humble-sounding words. It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that you're humble. I suppose a really humble person is the only person in all the world who doesn't realize that they're humble. They merely recognize that they're honest about themselves.
It's an interesting world I'm preparing to venture into. I hope God can use me in some way in it.
