Proving myself right

Well, I figured my plan for putting up one review a week would falter, and it has. I've been working on a few books, but nothing really worth writing about yet.

On Friday I went to a "normal" Christian bookstore for the first time in a while. By normal I just mean that it doesn't cater to a seminary audience. My first reaction, as it too often is, was pride. These trinkits and books are heretical/juvenille/whatever. I took a perverse pride in noticing that the DaVinci Code section was larger than the theology section. It felt good to think I was smarter and/or more spiritually mature than the people that owned and frequented the store.

After wandering the aisles for a while, I realized a few things. First, that I was being stupid. Christian stores can sell more than books without needed to be ashamed. Secondly, most Christians do not care about the types of books I usually read. That does not make them less (or more) mature in their faith (where does Jesus say, "Blessed are the bookworms"?).

I guess my point is this: when we become immersed in a Christian sub-culture (whether that's seminary, Crusade, the Emergent movement, or the cool Christian club (my name for the Sufjan Stephens/Donald Miller... thing), it is easy to fall into pride when your pet area is neglected. In the next few days I'll mention how pride has effected me during other stages (like those mentioned above). Hopefully it'll help.