From The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub
(speaking about the 60's) The locus of spiritual dialogue was migrating out of the church and into popular culture. The convergence of these contemporary forces would crack the foundations of organized religion, erode its authority and confidence, and, in many ways, displace it as the center of spiritual influence. In a lightning-rod moment, John Lennon quipped that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. In a subsequent press conference, Lennon explained that he was actually deploring the rising influence of everything popular and the diminishment of religion: "I could have said TV or cinema or anything else that's popular. Or motorcars are bigger than Jesus... I'm not knocking Christianity or saying it's bad, I'm just saying it seems to be shrinking and losing contact... We [the Beatles] all deplored the fact that it is, you know. And nothing better seems to be replacing it."
But something was replacing it. Media consultant Michael Wolfe said recently in The New Yorker, "I really believe entertainment in a lot of ways has become a way for people to come together. It has, in fact, become - I'm convinced of this, it's become a replacement for religion; in the same way people used to quote scripture, they're now quoting Seinfeld."
What do you think? Has popular culture become the main "locus theologicus," as Staub would say, that is, the main place that people encounter God in our culture?
