Christian Cotton Candy

It is autumn, a time of year for carnivals and festivals and fairs and football games. That means that over the next several weeks, copious amounts of cotton candy will be consumed. Any parent worth his or her salt knows one important thing about cotton candy – it’s best consumed in small amounts. Eat too much, the kids get really hyper, and then possibly sick. Cotton candy is great is small doses. It is not so great when you eat too much.

I’m afraid that much of what Christians are consuming today, and believing is good for their faith, is little more than spiritual cotton candy. It may provide a temporary high, but it has no substance, provides no nourishment, and may actually be making them sick instead of healthy. Let me be more specific: much of what I see passing for Christianity today is little more than pop culture with a Christian bow. Much of what I see passing for the faith right now is little more than spiritual kitsch – the latest “Christian movie,” nice Christiany slogans posted on Facebook walls, Christian radio that is “safe for the entire family,” and political ads disguised as devotional material. And it’s not that movies, or slogans, or music, or politics are bad, though some of these things are certainly better than others. It’s simply that they can never replace the things that are really meant to nourish our faith. They’re cotton candy – fun, with very little substance. They’re not the kind of food that puts spiritual meat on the bones.

I have very little patience or trust in anything but the Word or any person but Jesus which promises spiritual transformation. So this is a call for Christian seriousness, a faith which is rooted in the person and work of Jesus, which is guided by the Word, which has an eye on the history of the church, and is not distracted by the pseudo-Christian junk that is out there. A faith that is mainly guided by slogans and bumper stickers is not a faith that will stand the test of time, in this world, or in your soul. We live in a society that is increasingly secular and sometimes hostile to the Christian faith. If your personal faith is not grounded in seriousness, it will not stand up. When big questions arise, when trouble erupts, if all you have is Christian pop-culture to fall back on, it will not be a safe landing spot.

So watch Christian movies, listen to Christian radio, post Christian slogans on your Facebook wall, and participate in politics. There is nothing wrong with any of this. But see it for what it is. It is not where the heart of the Christian faith lies. The heart lies in the Gospel, the story found in the Bible of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It lies in the spiritual disciplines: prayer, Bible study, worship, and community. It lies in loving and serving your neighbor. These things will provide real nourishment for you, the kind of nourishment that build you into what God wants you to be. And when you are becoming that, you can handle a little cotton candy from time to time. You’ll just find that you want less of it.