BLUE LIKE JAZZ

A few months back I picked up Blue Like Jazz at the Christian book store. The book has been taking college campuses by storm. In fact, the young lady working the register said that all her friends at the university had read it, and that she fully intended to. To be honest, I wish I could go back and tell her not to waste her time.

Blue like Jazz was a total let down. Donald Miller seems to have a hard time understanding the concept of biblical holiness. Was it sinful for him to get drunk and smoke pot while leading a church youth group? He never admits that it was. Was it sinful to drink and curse at your roommates while playing video games? Apparently not. Donald Miller's Christianity is way cool, too cool for the Bible if you ask me.

What ever happened to taking up one's cross and following Christ? What about the Biblical admonitions to speak only that which is good and helpful to your brother? Being a Christian is and has always has been countercultural. Jesus was not and is not "cool." I agree with Shane Walker of 9 marks ministries, "The only antidote seems to be twofold. The first is to reintroduce young Christians to the biblical Jesus: the person who died an agonizing death for their sins, who will tread the winepress of the wrath of God, and who listens to their prayers. The second is to begin the battle against the cool. The godly must begin to prove in the pulpit, in writing, and in their lives that Christianity is the deadly enemy of the cool. And the cool is the Western postmodern entertainment driven culture that has tutored our children and ourselves for the last fifty years."