Old Fashioned! I strongly dislike those two words. They invoke images of horse-&-buggies, men in tall hats and ladies with bonnets in the minds of most if not all 21st Century Americans. Most fundamentalists spout the term with a glint of pride in their eye. But nothing could be more detrimental or misrepresenting than those two words. They are clumsily attempting to label their values as historic or somehow older thus more valid than all these new fangled ideas (there’s an archaic term for ya). Yet I believe they are doing damage to themselves every time it comes out of their mouth or shows up somewhere on a reader board in front of their church.
Is God’s Word old fashioned or relevant to today? Is it descriptive of a society in general that forgets about God and small remnants of people that obey God? Does it show the natural progression of man from disbelieving God to believing he himself is a god? If we look around us we would see that God’s Word relevantly deals with the issues we face today. The Bible is more relevant than tomorrow’s online news. Since our faith is based on it how can our faith be old fashioned.
I wonder when it came about that Christians first fancied themselves old fashioned. I wonder who was sitting there in his study and said “by the beard of Zeus they call me old fashioned because I’m old fashioned…” It may not have happened that way but now is the time to move on. The time is now to label ourselves in a relevant and understandable manner.
Our Post Modern day and age doesn’t need old fashioned Christians it needs relevant Christians. Believers who have a clear understanding of the times and realize the need of the hour is not a label but a love for those around them.
