Intelligence For Your Life

“This is John Tesh, intelligence for your life on J93.3” If you’re driving at night and have one of Atlanta’s Christian radio stations on, you’ll recognize this jingle.
“Did you know that if you drink a cup of chamomile tea a day, your chance of catching a cold goes down by 50%?” “To have a healthy relationship, studies show you have to spend five hours of quality time a week.” “Children who grow up playing sports are healthier than the ones who don’t.” (I made these ones up, but the real statistics are very much like these.)
The Tesh –radio show spits out random facts about health and relationships and calls it “intelligence for your life”. Really? Intelligence? They seem to be nice tips about life, but I think using the word intelligence is misplaced.
One of my pet peeves in the American Christian sub-culture is the lack of reality. And by this sub-culture I mean the stereotypical, Christian evangelical, Testamint, witness t-shirt, big church, big hair, big smile, play nice and you’ll be okay -message –culture. This is the culture that seems to live in isolated suburbs, driving big cars and living nice lives, with a nice Christianity that tells them that as long as they are nice all is well.
The reality of homeless people downtown, billions of people still not having heard the Gospel and that actually Jesus’ message is radical and dangerous doesn’t seem to connect with this culture.
It is much easier to live in a bubble where listening to cute tips on Christian radio makes you feel in control of your life.

I am not the only one frustrated with this. Writers such as Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Rick McKinley have written books on it. Actually, there is a quiet revolution under way here in America’s Christian culture.
(Disclaimer: I do appreciate J93.3 and a lot of the American Christian culture. After all, I do partake.)