I had no idea how deeply embedded I was inside the “Christian bubble” until I see ridiculous things like this Chick-fil-a appreciation day.
By the term “Christian bubble”… I mean the subculture Christians create for themselves that allows them to conduct their entire life having minimal contact with anything “secular.”
Because the term “secular” means anti-Christian, right? (sarcasm)
When someone takes residence inside the “bubble”, activities in life are based on where they can be with other Christians. All I knew from the decade inside the institutional church was other “Christians” and “Christian” functions. From small groups, to play dates, to baseball leagues, to anything really. The “world” is viewed as something to be avoided at all costs.
It wasn’t until I “popped” that I learned that the “Christian bubble” can quickly envelop almost every aspect of life.
The bubble is comfortable, and it is easy. You know there are unwritten rules about how to be nice to each other, what you can say and what you cannot, and the correct answers to life’s difficult questions. You know what you’re getting. I found out that I was getting a bunch of bullshit from a lot of two-faced people. Unless I melded into exactly the same theological doctrine as them, I would not be allowed to stay inside the bubble.
Well pop that!
When you actually go deep with people who do not know anything about any freaking “bubble”, you do not know what you will get, and for sure there will be no easy answers. It’s not easy, as a Christian, to interact honestly with people who are drinking themselves to oblivion on the weekends, to interact with someone who discusses agnostic views intelligently, or interact with guys who spend most of their time googling at other women and even cuss now and then. You definitely do not hear or see any of that floating inside the “bubble”.
When you are wrapped up all comfortable inside the “Christian bubble” you do not have to take the time to interact with “them”, or to build a relationship with “them”. The relationship does not build until they join the “bubble”… sad, very sad.
The discomfort with the discomfort keeps “Christians” in the bubble, and it has some serious consequences.
Let’s take the current Chick-fil-a deal that is going on. (Do not get me wrong, I think the gay community is doing it wrong to. You can be as gay as you want to be, that is your choice, but people are going to have an opinion and that is ok too). From inside the “Christian bubble”, they look at “those people” from a distance, and are completely isolating themselves from “them”. It is when you actually get close enough to become friends, confronted with the complexity of their lives, their struggles, their beauty, their sin, and their humanity is when it becomes difficult.
Who in the hell wants that?
Well, no one that remains inside the “Christian bubble”. They just want them to become just like them and join the “bubble”… then it is easy to talk to “them”.
When you burst the “bubble” you cannot stereotype anymore. You actually start to care about others. You want them to trust and love Jesus because you love them, not just because they are “sinners”.
I am a Christian living outside the institutional bubble, and I can tell you that the so-called message of Jesus you are trying to share is not coming across at all. The message of a political fight to legislate morality and to define yourself as a right-wing political party is what they see… no love there 😦
When the “bubble Christians” have their own music, their own sports, their own schools, and now their own fast food, the evil in the world is winning. Keep building that “Christian bubble”, and eventually both sides will just stop communicating all together…
… just what Christ Himself would want, right?
Allergic to BS 
I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve been craving chicken all the more because of this. I’m really craving some chick-fil-a, but I think I’ll wait until the gay community does their “kiss-in” on Friday. I don’t really want to see anyone making out in public, but I think I’d rather eat my chicken with the outside-the-bubble folks!
Shon – I am just waiting for the “I am not for gay marriage, but can give a rat’s ass who is marrying who, that is their choice” day, and I will enjoy my chick-fil-a without judgment.
This is exactly the sort of thing I would have been all up in arms about a few years ago but now I am less concerned with sinners acting like sinners and more with telling them about Christ.
Arthur – I am with you there. I want to show them Christ, and somehow I do not see him in the drive thru