The Impotence of Contrarianism

(Originally written October 2010)

Like many people, I listen to sports radio a fair amount - though not at work, as I've tried and find myself standing still yelling at the radio - alas I am a terrible multitasker. And I've become more convinced than ever of a conclusion that many in New England came to long ago: Mike Felger is a loser.

Not because he's from Milwaukee and couldn't hack it on every show he'd been on before Mohegan Sun and the Sports Hub, nor because he's an arrogant, tasteless juvenile phlegmatic who genuinely doesn't like many of the teams from the region he calls home. He's a loser because he's a contrarian. The worst kind of contrarian, because he claims to be the sole purveyor of objectivity awash in a sea of psychophantic "green teamers", yet his angles are almost always dictated more by a reaction to popular sentiment than facts or statistics. Contrarian 1, Objectivity 0. In other words, he is hoisted on his own pitard.

It's easy to understand why someone would act in this manner. Remember when you were a kid, and there were the "cool kids" who were "too cool for school"? Try going to a small Christian school. The cool thing during my tenure at Christian schools is to moan all day about how how crappy the sports program was (for the guys), or how terrible the selection of guys were (mostly from the girls). Sadly I observed this trend only grow in volume & popularity as I got older, reaching a fevor pitch at a Christian college. Except now teachers were on board. "Oh, I shouldn't say that HERE..." Wink wink, nudge nudge. Those lame stuffy evangelicals and there infantile notions of morality.

But seriously, think about any context, anywhere, and there will always be someone there bemoaning their surroundings, coworkers, boss, company policy, stupid customers, etc. They are, in essence, letting you know that they're better than all this. Because it's cool to buck the trend. And always easier to criticize than come up with a proactive solution.

Think of politics, religion, or sociology. Campaigns right up the highest office in our country are won with the sales pitch of "not being the guy in office", or different from what has gone before. It's an appealing stance which requires little thought or articulations of what you actually have to offer. And therein lies the impotence of contrarianism- it is ultimately self defeating.

Let's take an example from an exchange common in church circles today.

"What do you believe?"

"Well, I'll tell you what I DON'T believe." K, that wasnt' really what I asked...

"Well, I was brought up being taught a, b, and c...have any of you here ever heard those things?"

Thoughtful nods appear across the room- in this case dissent from Evangelicalism most often replaces a genuine alternative vision of church structure/beliefs with an ambiguous sense of dissatisfied empathy. But I write this today for a different reason.

Several weeks ago I met the head pastor of a church we were visiting. He was, in my estimation, a bit stuffy and underwhelming. As he was the head pastor, I contemplated the implications this would have if we were to attend this church, and the type of leadership I wanted to place myself under, particularly at this point in my life. I thought I was rather gracious in my exchange with him, not letting on in the slightest that this probably wouldn't be my bag. Then today, we found ourselves there again, and he was preaching. Let's see if your instincts have gotten rusty, I told myself.

He spoke in a quiet, deliberate tone; since that first visit I learned he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's yet was still doing all he could to continue his ministerial duties as before. He looked pretty stodgy, actually, in his pinstriped suit and starched shirt - completely unlike the young worship team members or assistant pastors. Even with his microphone you had to be quiet for fear that you would miss words or phrases. Yet what followed was the most humbling, articulate sermon I've heard in quite some time.

The pews were filled with young people cut from a generational cloth miles apart from this preacher's. The "you have 3 seconds to entertain me or I'm done" generation. Most listened, several were visibly distracted by the occasional noisy kid or the not-so-occasional note being passed to each other. As I sat there, disgusted with myself and the entitled narcissistic brats that comprise my generation, I couldn't help but think that we were essentially guilty of, for a better term, sermon contrarianism. I thought about the disservice we do to ourselves (that I have so often been guilty of) when we dismiss a pastor, a church, or a group of churches based on appearance or style, and miss content - potentially life-changing content in this case. It functions as a wonderful escape hatch from conviction because it completely circumvents the question of "What is God trying to say to me?" by instead asking "How does he expect to hold my attention with THAT?! Someone should really talk to him..." Or similar dismissive or distracting thoughts.

Now I don't mean that we shouldn't try to be culturally "relevant" - that's really a misnomer, as the Gospel is eternally relevant, and what we are really addressing is the packaging we surround it with- or that we shouldn't try to meet people where they're at. What I'm referring to are the churchgoing folks who have been in the pew long enough to develop a little callous here and there. And when there's a guest speaker who isn't quite as advertised, or worse still, you're in a friend's church where things are done just a little differently, you allow that distraction to take precedence in your mind, and check out a little bit, because "you're better than all this".

I could qualify this in a hundred ways with a hundred disclaimers, each having some validity and relevance to church format and where it needs to get with the times- but the heart of the matter is this: When we care more about our ego than we care about humbling ourselves before the Word of God, we (1) cheat ourselves of much needed nourishment, and (2) cheat all those we come into contact with who need to hear something encouraging and life giving. God isn't interested in your nuanced sensibilities and how they weren't satisfied with the packaging delivered this morning from the pulpit. He doesn't want to tweak them, He wants to rip them apart and completely rebuild them into something that has no room for ego and self. The questions you don't think people are smart or wise enough to answer aren't the point. The point is the hubristic perspective from which you're asking them. God may not answer your questions because ultimately they're the wrong questions. Get your eyes where they should be. Don't wander through a desert and stumble into a well, only to critique the archaic pulley system they expect you to use to get the water out. Get a drink, give your friends a drink, then (with slightly clearer and more thankful frames of mind) constructively address a potentially more efficient means of water delivery. Until then we are just frauds standing around an untapped well.