Christ? Culture? Christ and Culture?

By Daye Jung

Every weekday, my afternoon consists of extremely brain-power required classes: AP statistics, Christ and Culture, and finally, AP English Literature and Composition. The two Advanced placement classes sandwich the harder of the two senior Bible classes taught by Mr. Patrick Kilgo. Christ and Culture is a semester-long Bible class all seniors are required to take. The curriculum requires all students to participate in discussions regarding debated topics around 1^st world countries. The point of this class is to prepare Christian teenagers who are about to embark on a new world. The real world. Full of alcohol, drugs, and dying in their 50s.

All sarcasm aside, being confined in this Christian bubble for 10 years has really dulled my sense of reality. I’ve only seen two extremes portrayed to me in media, trying to show how beautiful or miserable one’s life is. Christian censorship blinds one’s eyes, and Christ and Culture opens them--slowly, but surely.

Many different genres are discussed in this gathering, from social issues to political opinions. Nothing is labeled as right or wrong except the Bible. God’s words are kept as the basis of all debate, requiring students to research verses of the scripture to back up their arguments and opinions. Discussions of Christ, Culture, and the combination of Christ and Culture becomes the primary purpose of said class.

The class not only shows what one should do when such a crisis (of having to decide what is right and wrong) arrives, it teaches us how to come to a conclusion and why it is so. Instead of blindly memorizing some fact or another, these thoughtful discussions provoke critical thinking, allowing students to grow as an individual.