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Sex, Top Posts, celebrity, discipleship
Sex, Top Posts, celebrity, discipleship Entries in Sex (2)
Most Popular Posts vs My Favorites (I Lose)
Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 12:28AM 
Apparently, gentle readers, we don’t always see things eye to eye, you and I. On Monday I listed my twelve favorites posts of 2010. Today, as I list the five most-visited posts, only one of them was among my favorites.
Students of Jesus welcomed readers from 105 countries on all five inhabited continents. Next year I'm hoping the penguins in Antarctica get wi-fi. And Students of Jesus reached all 50 of these United States. I'm particularly grateful to that one guy in Cheyenne for putting Wyoming on the map (I hope he comes back next year as well).
The final week of the year is the traditional time for retrospectives, and I’m nothing if not traditional. So, in the continued spirit of all-about-me narcissism, here are Students of Jesus' most-visited posts of 2010.
When Famous Christians are Gay When Christian singer Jennifer Knapp came out as a lesbian (with simultaneous interviews in The Advocate and Christianity Today) I ventured away from the center of Students of Jesus and gave my opinions on the church, on sin, and on the abuse of scripture. Not surprisingly, my views satisfied no one--not even myself. This post generated 25 times the normal traffic to my blog, but it wandered away from the premise of Students of Jesus by commenting on current events and the church at large. I’ve learned that such posts generate a lot of heat and almost no light.
Monday’s Meditation: Sex, Celebrity and Discipleship Just four days later, shocked at the traffic that flooded my little dog and pony show, I tried to get back to the core of my concerns (I'm actually quite proud of this post). I commented on why issues of sex and celebrity draw an audience 25 times larger than the issue of discipleship. Really? Sex and celebrity garners more attention than following Jesus? Who knew? A crazy side effect of this post is that because the title contains the words sex and celebrity it draws traffic every week from search engines around the world. I feel sorry for the people who eagerly click on the link. The average length of a visit to this post? Less than two seconds.
The Great Fall of Wisdom This is the only overlap between my top twelve and the most-visited posts. I suggested that an omniscient God isn’t impressed with how smart we are. I also suspect that the reason it was visited so often is that 22.6% of Reformed-theology seminary students came to laugh at my reasoning (I made that last statistic up, but I stand by it nonetheless). I still like this post, and I would appreciated if all four of my regular readers would email it to Zondervan, Lifeway, and Thomas Nelson.
Monday’s Meditation: Three Important Questions I’m not going to tell you what the three questions are, but believe me, they’re important. This post also generated the most comments of any post all year, but only because I shamelessly ended the article with these pathetic words: “I’m begging: tell me what you think.”
Monday’s Meditation: Indigenous Worship (dot com) I thrilled this post was well received because my dearest friends launched a website dedicated to songwriting and creativity in the local church. It’s an awesome site, and you should definitely check it out, but you should always do so by going to Students of Jesus first and then following the link to their site. Then they might buy me lunch.
One glimmer of hope for people who search the InterWeb is that the sixth-place post was actually written in February of 2009. Somehow, among the millions of people using Google-dot-antichrist, several hundred found their way to Students of Jesus by searching “How Can We Humble Ourselves.” That just provides just enough hope for me to keep writing another year.
That’s it, friends. 2010 is in the books, and my prayer for all four of you is that you will experience God’s richest blessings in the year to come. And hey, what would you like to read about in the coming year, I’m begging: tell me what you think!
Monday's Meditation: Sex, Celebrity, & Discipleship
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 12:24PM I’m wondering today if I became a dramatically better writer overnight. With last Thursday's post, When Famous Christians are Gay, traffic to Students of Jesus increased ten-fold, and comments tripled their usual rate.
Why did so many more people visit this particular blog post and recommend it to others? To be sure, there were some unusual elements: I’ve never written specifically about sexuality before; I’ve never focused on a celebrity before; and never addressed the politically charged topic of homosexuality before. These three elements combined to generate increased buzz and discussion--but why?
Sexuality: Does our sexual activity fall under the Lordship of Jesus? Is there a connection between sexuality and spirituality? In the 16-month life of this blog I’ve never written specifically about sex and the life of a disciple. My bad--it’s a significant part of how we express our devotion to Jesus: gay, straight, single, married, widowed, divorced. My failure to address the sexual part of our being effectively pushes sex into the closet, as if spiritual people do not concern themselves with sex. Big mistake. I’m determined to address this area soon.
Celebrity: Say what you want, Jennifer Knapp still knows how to promote an album. The twin interviews with Christianity Today and The Advocate certainly put her back into the public eye after a seven-year absence. And readers apparently care. What is it about celebrity that draws our attention? As followers of Jesus, why would we respond more strongly to her story than someone unknown? True, her celebrity stems from recording “sacred” music targeted at a Christian market, but what does this reveal about our values as consumers of Christian culture?
Discipleship: Jesus invites everyone: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11: 28) He loves us just the way we are--but does he let us remain just the way we are? What activities are compatible with becoming a follower of Jesus? When--and how--does he change us? Do we want him to change us, or is Christianity simply another lifestyle choice we add as an accessory to our lives? His anger burned against religious hypocrisy. He called self-righteous people “snakes” and “blind guides.” Clearly, he urged them to repent. Yet when Jesus befriended tax collectors and prostitutes did he endorse their lifestyle? Although we have no record of it, can we imagine that the woman at the well in John 4 remained in her living arrangements? Is a life-long embrace of sin compatible with the life of a disciple? The yoke Jesus offers produces peace and rest--but it is still a yoke.
These three topics have saturated my thoughts in the last four days. I invite you to think them through and dialogue with me in the days to come.