Preaching Against Obscure Things
As a result of living outside of popular culture, fundamentalist preachers often end up preaching against a lot of obscure and outdated things. Lyrics from popular bands may not be as shocking as the ones from some little known death metal band named the Flaming Satan’s Army of Human Sacrifice so inevitably the latter’s songs will be the ones quoted. As an unintended consequence, many teenagers also find a lot of new music this way that they would otherwise have never heard about.
There are also the sermons against Mohawk haircuts, Baywatch, Vanilla Ice, and a host of other things that have long since passed their prime as pet sins. And it’s not just preachers that tend to form their standards from bygone times. Fundy colleges and schools will make new rules to combat fleeting fads and enshrine them in their rulebooks, leaving students years later scratching their heads and asking “what are pegged pants?”
The good news is that if the worldly ways of years ago happen to come back into vogue, fundamentalists preachers will already be preaching against them.
Posted by Darrell
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lol…I knew this preacher that would bring up Randy Travis and other old guys whenever he preached against country music… and he’d quote the lyrics “there’s a tear in my beer”, as if we’ve all heard that song.
Wait. So is THAT what pegged pants are?! LOL!
I grew up in the late 70′s and early 80′s. None of us knew what they meant by pegged pants. I finally asked my mom–she knew, she had worn them in the 50′s.
according to Wikipedia, pegged pants were a style back in the 80s and 90s, started by a guy on a tv show. It’s just funny that someone would preach against it, because it was obviously a dorky thing that went out of style anyway.
I love the pic you posted with this blog entry. I also just absolutely love this blog!
Is that your leg Darrell? When did you start wearing jeans?
In the mid-90′s I heard one Pastor mention pagers in a sermon, as something some teens would wear, and he’s comment, “It’s for sin…”, leaving us to imagine what that sin might be – either a Girlfriend or drugs.
He also once commented on the super-baggy pants kids wore back then (any some may still do, I guess), on how they almost dropped down to the knees, but to be fair, even Alicia Silverstone make a similar comment in “Clueless” (uh-oh, I mentioned a Hollywood film
In the late 90′s early 00′s I attended a fundy high school and it always amused me how out of date and obscure the chapel messages were. Nobody needed to dissuade us from listening to Michael Jackson but it was done on a regular basis. Also there was Tupac Shakur (pronounced by the speaker as Two Pack Shaker) and Notorious B.I.G. (pronounced Big). I also had no idea who Marilyn Manson was until my bible teacher tried to convince us to stop listening to his music.
Also, the ruling against popular trends was somewhat of a challenge for us. It was quite exciting to have a special rule/ announcement in your honor. If your actions necessitated a new rule it meant that the school officials deemed you popular enough to start a trend. These rules were destined to stay in the school handbook for years to come as evidenced by the fact that we were told annually that young men were not allowed to wear chambray shirts as these were considered ‘work clothes”.
Hilarious! Apparently I have read the same rule books you have.