Laughing at Ourselves

I recently posted a video blog about the issue of "personal taste". You can find it here. In the video, I talk about how (in my opinion) personal taste reflects a great deal of one's personal character. Among the examples I use are the objectification of women in rap and hip hop, and how most rappers are egotistical, racist ignoramuses.

Think he knows any Hawthorne? I doubt it.

I stand by the assertion in my video. I really do think that you must be very careful about your own personal tastes. I think that those tastes reflect a great deal of who you are as a person, and indeed, what you value. In order to get you to watch my video (and subscribe! Please!) I'm not going to recap my entire argument here. However, what I will say is that to some of you I will come across as quite egotistical myself. I criticize the values that are inherent in rap music, and yet make it seem like the values inherent in classic country are on the higher end of the moral spectrum. I realize that the values inherent in my own personal taste in music often glorify alcohol and drug abuse. That, ladies and gentlemen, is why I chose to write this piece.

Any time you criticize, you should be prepared to look at yourself too. I don't think you can be a critic with anything valuable to say unless you approach your criticism from an entirely objective viewpoint. When you take this objective viewpoint, rising above your own personal bubble, I think it is unavoidable to see your own faults and shortcomings quite clearly. That is why, in my video, I am able to laugh at myself all the while criticizing personal tastes that I think are decadent and ignorant. In a sense, I find it hard to take myself too seriously. That is not to say I am devaluing what I have to say on the subject. On the contrary, I think I am right. But at the same time, I am able to see my own shortcomings, and able to recognize that I have tendency to be a self-righteous, opinionated bigot. Does that mean what I am saying is any less true? I don't think so. I am able to laugh at the messenger (myself) all the while still reflecting on the truth of the message.

I think that we, as Christians, have a bad tendency to get this wrong. When people make fun of our religion, or the hypocrisies of our religion, we are quick to get upset about it. I think this shows just how inflated our image of self-righteousness is.

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of seeing the movie Easy A. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I am a huge Emma Stone fan, and I think her performance was spot on. I'm not going to go into a detailed plot summary here, but basically Emma Stone plays a teenage girl who gets an undeserved reputation at her high school as a young woman of "ill repute", and uses this reputation to her advantage. Before I saw the movie, I was told by several people in my church that the movie's depiction of teenage Christians was "offensive" and "blasphemous". Here is a clip of some of the blasphemy.

I think it's freaking hilarious.

Now why do I think it's funny? Because it's true. The director of this movie has almost flawlessly satirized the hypocrisy that many "spiritual" young people fall into. High school is a time when most people really begin to discover who they are. In this often turbulent time in young people's lives, they are quick to embrace causes that they feel define themselves. In the spirit of true naivete, they often approach these new found causes with fervor, determination, and a real black-and-white sense of the world. Now of course, this often leads them into a (quite hilarious) form of hypocrisy. "It's just so hard to love them!" the young lady in the clip exclaims, tears in her eyes. This egotistical tendency of young people, combined with a black-and-white worldview and a naive fervor, is perfect material for the director of Easy A to capitalize on. The high school Christians in his movie confuse "love" and "witnessing" with human judgement and hypocrisy. (You will have to watch the whole movie to understand exactly how they are hypocritical, but I'm not going to spoil it). The clip wouldn't be funny if we couldn't recognize the truth in it.

Does me finding the movie funny somehow debase Christianity? I think if you say the answer is "yes" then you have given me and the director of the movie too much power. I think it is blasphemous to think that somehow this director, producing this one creative work in the vastness of time and space, can somehow hurt the message of God and Jesus Christ. I think that is an inflated view of humankind.

The message is bigger than me. The message is bigger than those high school Christians. Things with true value are bigger than the one who values them.

That is why I choose to laugh at myself. That is why I choose to laugh at Easy A. That is why I choose to laugh and make fun of Christians, even as I call myself one. If I couldn't laugh at myself, or my own religion, or the people around me, I would have taken all of it too seriously. After all, I am a flawed, imperfect, human. I struggle everyday to do what is right and to think true thoughts. I fail all the time. Sometimes those failures are funny.

True self-worth is being able to laugh at yourself when you fall flat on your face. The original slapstick comedy, if you will.

Davidoff Royalty Youtube Review

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2KKu2h4lVs&feature=youtu.be