#71. Calling things "postmodern."
Mar 11th by JonThis is probably our new favorite word, second only to “relevant” which I wrote about recently. I have friends that describe everything as postmodern. They practically want to label their pancakes as postmodern. “Isn’t sugar free syrup just such a postmodern breakfast condiment? It’s a different take on syrup, capturing our cultural desire to have something sweet but our fear of having something sugary.” No, no it’s not. It’s just syrup. And sometimes it’s OK to just see music as music and a sermon as a sermon. And 80% of the time they say it they don’t mean it, they just want to say something that sounds cool. They’re just saying words. They could just as easily say something like “Corduroyed Giraffe” instead of postmodern. In fact from now on, I am going to use that. Example, “Blogging about God is such a Corduroyed Giraffe thing to do.” There, I feel better already.
Comments
Love the site. I hope you don’t mind me linking to it on my blog.
You should put in at some point, “Committees”. Christians love committees, especially Baptists. There’s a flower committee, a benevolence committee, and hospitality committee, and every other kind of committee you can imagine. And many times, the same 6 people just jump from one committee to the next at the end of their 1 year term.
I found your blog through Neatorama and it is like looking inside my own head.
Thanks for being honest!
I wish this was funny.
Or that you gave credit to the blog YOU STOLE the idea from.
Finally, someone unhappy with the site. But I did give credit. The first post I wrote said “p.s. this is a direct rip off from a really popular secular site. See post 1 for more details.” And then on top of that, the first item on the list is about Christians that steal ideas. And I even wrote the following:
I took the wildly popular site “stuff white people like” and tweaked it just a little to make it about people that worship God. But “creatively borrowing” ideas from the world is only one of the things we Christians like to do.
Thanks for the comment though.
LOL!!!
I was waiting for this to happen. People blinded by anger can't really look far enough to see the floor rushing up to kiss their face. =3
Has anyone here ever heard of "there nothing's new under the sun?" or something to that effect? I think it means that there's nothing really original at its most basic foundation. *shrugs* Good post, Jon =D
LOL LOL LOL ROF!
A friend of mine sent me a link to this post. I pointed out to him that ironically this post was somewhat postmodern (I really do love that word). Then we realized the entire blog is too. Postmodern, Postmodern, Postmodern! Really funny stuff!
postmodern is a term that is overused by almost any pseudo-bourgeoisie sect of american society. a hybrid car is postmodern, but what’s the point of saying so? postmodernism is a cop-out word used to give validation to stuff that just rips off old stuff. luciano berio was supposed to be “post modernist;” i say he was regressive and not terribly daring as a composer/artist.
i grew up christian, and i find your site terribly accurate. i followed the link through from neatorama.
i started a list of “things white people hate,” but decided against putting it online because it would be tacky… however, in your case, “ripping off” some-one else’s idea, is making a statement about what christianity fundamentally is. :]
There are so many good posts on here, but this one might be my favorite.
Of course, most people can’t really define “postmodern.” I dare say we all use words we can’t define on a regular basis…especially churchy words or words that describe other forms of spirituality. I think the syrup analogy is about the best definition I’ve ever seen!
I don’t know, I think “missional” is quickly replacing “postmodern”…or is it “emergent”…No, it’s missional.
I remember when “postmodern” was a bad word at church, right up there with “humanist.” Does anyone else remember that?
My christian college offers a number of classes in postmodernism. I haven’t taken them but a number of my friends have, and I’m getting really sick of determining whether things are or aren’t postmodern. They’ve even shortened it: PoMo.
Really? Do we need to talk about whether my shoelaces are PoMo?
Jeremy-Yep! And calling it Teams or anything like that still doesn’t erase the fact that S. Baptists must have a committee to get anything accomplished. I think it’s in the Baptist Faith and Message…:P
I think post-modernism goes hand in hand with relativism. But I don’t like the word post-modern because I had to write a paper on it vs. modernism in high school and I worked really hard on it only to receive a not-so-good grade.
This is post 71. This is also at least the 43rd so far that reeks of what college was like for me. And another 19 remind me of my time as a youth minister.
So…thanks?
I prefer to say POMO instead of postmodern because it’s way more hip.
i really try to leave that term inside the art history lecture hall… i don’t really understand it otherwise!
I remember when Ravi Zacharias was walking on a campus and the tour guide stopped at a building and told everyone it was a post-modern building. “What’s a post modern building?” asked Ravi.
The building was apparently made for no particular reason, stairs leading to no where, no real reason for certain walls to help with the structure or anything.
And Ravi asked, “I hope they didn’t have the same mindset with the foundation.”
OWNED!
OMG, Corduroyed Giraffe is *so* PoMo.
haha my 11th grade english teacher's favorite word was post-modern! she would constantly call us poor pitiful post-modern children