An outsider's look at the world of Christian pop culture.
The title is perhaps a bit misleading; the Rapture only pops up briefly, during Radosh's chapter on apocalyptic Christian fiction. For the most part, the culture Radosh explores falls closer to mainstream Christianity.
There's a Christian equivalent to almost every aspect of mainstream pop culture -- rock music, stand up comedy, music festivals, theme parks, even pro wrestling. There are exceptions, of course. Mainstream country music, for instance, has enough religious content that a specificially Christian version is unnecessary.
And there's very little Christian hip-hop or rap. Most pop musicians can write what Radosh calls "Jesus is my girlfriend" songs, in which the object of one's devotion is ambiguous -- might be Jesus, might be a girl. But hip-hop generally treats women with less respect, and "Jesus is my ho" songs aren't going to be quite as effective.
Radosh is respectful to his subjects, for the most part, though there are a few whose views are just so extreme that it's nearly impossible not to ridicule them -- the staff of a Creation Museum where kids can ride on a dinosaur, for instance -- or so potentially dangerous that they must be precisely and carefully ripped to shreds, such as the movement to install abstinence-only sex education in schools.
The writing is breezy and accessible; this is not a heavy, scholarly study of the topic. Radosh concludes that those of us on the outside of this world need to embrace, or at least be more welcoming to, those forms of Christian pop culture that aren't completely loony. By condemning them, he argues, we set ourselves in opposition to moderate Christians, who if forced to choose between the secular world and the more unpleasant extremes of Christianity will choose the latter.
A worthwhile and very readable overview of a world most of us don't see very much of.
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