Another oldie but a goodie...

Here´s an old article I wrote for the University Paper. I liked it a lot.

Plagiarism for Christ:A Study in Christian EscapismThere is a social networking site available online. I’m sure there are those out there that use this site. You can add friends, join groups, find bands, and comment on others’ pages. I’ll give you a hint: the name ends with “space.” Guessed it? Well, if you guessed “myspace.com” you’d be wrong. It’s called “hisholyspace.com” and it is a blatant rip-off of myspace. If you looked at the two sites side by side, you would notice that they are completely identical in format and appearance. The only difference is that the terms have been changed to Christian terms. Instead of adding “friends” you add people to your “congregation” and instead of “reporting” bad users you “condemn” them, as well as many other term changes.Hisholyspace.com is extremely offensive. Why does it even need to exist? But this website is merely a symptom of something greater: “The Christian Ghetto”. The Christian Ghetto is not a ghetto in the sense of a modern day inner-city ghetto; it is a separate culture that is removed from the rest of society. Christians have their own music, their own t-shirts, their own books, their own schools, and now there is even a Christian myspace! What’s next, a Christian instant messaging service called “I-Am”? Why do we feel the need to take anything that is secular and run from it, or baptize that which is secular and mass-produce our own “Christian version” of it? Just because something is secular does not mean that it is evil and something to be feared. Whatever happened to “being in the world but not of the world”? I do not believe that Christ would be found at the Christian rock concerts of today wearing an “I’m a Christian and proud of it” shirt; he would most likely be at a bar showing love and acceptance for those that we run from. He would not be found hiding in chapel waiting for people to come to him; he would be walking the streets of Portland hanging out with the homeless and drug-addicts.Something is wrong with our mindset if we feel the need to escape from our surroundings and change everything to be “Christian.” We are called to be instruments of change in this world; this cannot be done by creating our own version of it and calling it “Christian”. We need to go out into the world, including the world of myspace, and be an example of God’s holiness on that site. We need to start a secular band that lives the example of Christ. As true followers of Christ, we are not to create our own world; we are to walk the secular world and be ourselves “his holy space.”