Red Hour

The teenage years. We have our own culture. Music, games, movies, books. We are our own world, frozen, stratified. Our icon is rebellion. We are not supposed to be respectful. We are supposed to live eight to ten years of games, and then go to college, play some more, and then we are expected to grow up suddenly, get a job, and get married.

I once heard of an old episode to a show in which the people were like zombies. I guess they had to obey whatever their control told them to do, go where they were told, think as they were told. However, for one hour a day, to keep their sanity, they were allowed red hour, in which they could smash windows, scream, and run around like madmen, until red hour was over, and then they had to become zombies again. Is that teenage rebellion, and is that why such rebellion is accepted and expected? Are we zombies walking around until the red hour of the teen years, allowed to let everything go until red hour is over? Is the time to let out all of our feelings so we may blindly submit to an empty and dead Christianity for the rest of our lives. And if anyone questions our religion we can say “hey, all I know is when I was coming off of red hour, it was a great rehab club to get back on my feet, so, let it alone man, I could never have survived red hour rehabilitation without it.”

Modern Churchianity does breed a culture of zombies. Many do not know what they believe, and to question is dangerous for your social standing. “Movement Leaders” have become elevated to the level of the scriptures, and to not bow blindly to their commands is rebellious. That is because it is Churchianity, not something found in the scriptures. It is fast paced and entertainment packed. Big Mac worship; fast and easy. (Did I ever mention the church in Texas I saw that had drive thru prayer?) Much of it is about teaching people how to look different from everybody else. So the children, (who, often times, are the only ones who think through things) see that the zombie state is not such a good thing, and rebel against it. Red Hour sets in. When they have run wild for a few years their crop begins to come up and they need somewhere or somthing to help them with their withdrawal. So they go to the church again. Nothing has changed here, but the kid really lived it up during red hour and now he needs someplace to help him rehabilitate. They get married, and have children. They expect their kids to go through red hour, everybody does, but they will come back to Churchianity, after all there is nowhere else to go.

That is not the scriptural model. Seize the day young men, seize the day. The night is coming in which no man can work. You are not promised tomorrow. You have today. Churchianity is not the answer. Christianity is.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott