The Christian party girl syndrome

This is a repost from a fellow blogger, James-Michael. Great post. I can't quite wrap my arms around this subject either.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=44586985&blogID=375465698



Yes, we all know girls like to get all dressed up, go out to clubs en masse, have a few drinks, and only dance with each other.

This post is not about that (completely-incomprehensible-to-us-guys) social occurance.

I can’t help but notice lately that in the world of the 20s-30s Christian singles scene there seems to be a profileration of party girls. How many myspace and facebook profiles do we see where there are Scripture passages and quotes interspersed among endless photos of cheek-to-cheek-smiling-with-drinks-in-hand-uptown-party-scene adventures and comments about how drunk they were at the time?? It’s crazy.

Now I want to make it clear that I’m not condemning drinking or going out to clubs or bars in and of themselves. I’m not a big fan of doing either of these; but that’s just a personal preference (mostly due to me not being a big fan of second hand smoke, over-priced drinks, and having to yell into the ear of the person you’re trying to talk to in order to be heard). What I just find puzzling is why so many girls seem to be drawn in to the party scene--to the point of almost bragging--yet seem so equally adamant about the importance of Christ in their life and how awesome their church is.

TO BE CLEAR, Jesus never shyed away from parties, alcohol, music or dancing (or combinations thereof). But I just can’t help wondering if His myspace page would contain album after album of Him, Mary Magdalene, Peter & his wife, and Matthew doing Irish Car Bombs and kissing each other at the Cana wedding party or the Passover feasts...

Lest I be misunderstood, I want it to be clear that I hate legalism with a passion (especially of the Bible-belt variety) and feel that Christians are supposed to be all up in places of darkness and meaninglessness shining the light of the world and providing hope and meaning to those who are without it.

But is the Christian-Party-Girl phenomenon solely a result of a passion for urban missions among the 20s-30s single Christian demographic?

Are the teachings of Jesus and His followers regarding drunkenness, revelry and profanity being brushed aside out of strategic evangelistic savvy? I can’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow (figuratively speaking, that is...I never could just raise one eyebrow; the other would always follow simultaneously) when I ask myself these type of questions.

I’d also be interested to see if the percentage of Christian 20s-30s who complain that there are just no good men out there is proportional to the percentage of Christian 20s-30s imbedded in the party/club scene. I have my own prediction...but I was always really bad at math.

And I don’t want to leave the impression that it is only Christian women who are planted in the party/club scene. There are probably just as many guys who fit the mold as well. However, from my own subjective perspective (does that count as a rhyme?) I just don’t see as many myspace or facebook profiles of Christian guys with the amount of Scripture/Party-pic combinations as the ladies. This could be due to it being less socially acceptable for a guy to see faith as something likely to be found attractive by the opposite sex, I dunno.

Anyway, I was just wondering if I’m alone in noticing this? I’d be interested to hear from others about it after taking a few minutes to scan the myspace or facebook Christian singles scene. I could be wrong.

JMS

ps: Don’t worry, ladies, if you think I’m unnecessarily singling out Christian women for myspace/facebook stereotypes. I’d be happy to write a blog on the white-guy-standing-in-front-of-bathroom-mirror-with-shirt-off stereotype any day of the week. ;)