"Evangelizing Hipsters" by Father Barron - What are your thoughts?

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My family is a very big fan of him. I am obsessed with all things theological and Evangelization is something that I really find interesting. Anyway my Mother has decided she needs to work some Catholic magic and so she and a friend are doing as the article says and going to me and my friend’s get togethers at our local coffee shop and talking to people. Anyway I thought the article was almost comical but serious at the same time. So I was just wondering as to what other people though, 🙂

wordonfire.org/wof-blog/wof-blog/june-2012/culture-5-keys-to-evangelizing-hipsters.aspx

5 Keys to Evangelizing Hipsters by Word on Fire
  1. Be authentic and rooted in Catholic belief.
  2. Be present and accessible.
  3. Don’t become a hipster
    1. Hipsters use technology to communicate, why don’t we?
    2. Teach Christ
 
I really enjoyed that, especially the number 3. I think the worst thing that we are doing is trying to make religion young, hip, and fresh for my own generation. I want authentic religion and beauty, not youth ministers trying to cater to what is fun and cool. Catholicism should be appealing because it is true, not because it is fun.

But yes, off from my rant, I did enjoy it. I think this is what has been taught from the beginning of christianity. We are to be in the world but not of the world and proclaiming just as the Apostles did that “Jesus Christ is Lord”. If we could teach that one thing successfully, then the rest will hopefully follow. If we would successfully learn that part ourselves, then even our own lives would change for the better.

So, thanks again for sharing this my friend, good luck and God bless.
 
Codix105 said:
That is why they are focused on the environment, buying local produce or fair trade coffee, while expressing their uniqueness through photography and travel.
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Wow. Apparently I’m a hipster, at my age.

Have been studying up on an environmental issue for a project at work, I buy handmade items on Etsy and at craft shows, local or organic produce from the grocery store or straight from the Amish / farm / beekeeper. And I’m an artist - photographer who recently returned last month from the great American road trip from Ohio to the Badlands of South Dakota and back again.

I prefer homebrew tea sold by a guy in Michigan who calls himself a “master tea blender” over fair trade coffee though. Anyways, …

Who knew?

:cool:

And cool article … 🙂

~~ the phoenix
 
My thoughts?

Don’t evangelize them. I don’t want them in the Church . . . .

Okay seriously, I do. But I can’t stand hipsters. 😦
 
drfye said:
whats a hipster?
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They wear thick-rimmed glasses, spend hours in the mirror to make sure they look slightly scruffy and unbathed, can’t order coffee without at least sixteen adjectives or options, look down on any band you listen to because you couldn’t ever hope to be as cool as them, consider everything they do cool until you start doing it, and consider themselves the ultimate trend-setters even though the bulk of their existence is defined by following trends. Or, to be more concise, they’re that group in the coffee shop you can’t help but wanting to go over and slap.
 
It seems that I see tons of them on YouTube and deviantART. :eek:
 
agreed people that are like the stereotype hipster are usually going by the stereotype very artistic
 
Gordon_Sims said:
They wear thick-rimmed glasses, spend hours in the mirror to make sure they look slightly scruffy and unbathed, can’t order coffee without at least sixteen adjectives or options, look down on any band you listen to because you couldn’t ever hope to be as cool as them, consider everything they do cool until you start doing it, and consider themselves the ultimate trend-setters even though the bulk of their existence is defined by following trends. Or, to be more concise, they’re that group in the coffee shop you can’t help but wanting to go over and slap.
Click to expand...
hahaha, can’t say i’ve ever seen anyone like that at Tim Hortons before, maybe i should pop into a star bucks even though i generally don’t drink coffee just to see.

this is what google image showed me:

google.ca/imgres?q=hipster&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=432&tbm=isch&tbnid=rK-MjCs4MQU7HM:&imgrefurl=http://skinnydip.ca/just-call-me-hipster-kryptonite&docid=PISgbf4j18-0BM&imgurl=http://skinnydip.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/hipster_****s.jpg&w=500&h=334&ei=9XfdT4-aNeak6gGQs62_Cw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=360&vpy=120&dur=183&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=101&ty=152&sig=109925288803182269283&page=1&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:159
 
A Gospel note for all the hipster haters …

And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least *hipsters *of mine, you did for me.’

Slightly amended from Mt 25:40. :cool:
 
It’s a good article, except for the assumption that there are no Catholic hipsters.

I’m not sure what a hipster is either, but I think I know a lot of them. The best short definition I can think of is that hipsters’ most scathing condemnation of anything is to say that it’s “lame.”

I share a lot of values with the folks I know (mostly students or former students) whom I think of as hipsters. I am all in favor of local, organic produce, community gardens, etc.

But often I feel as if I like everything about the hipsters except their hipsterishness.

They seem to have a lot of good values, but instead of speaking in terms of truth and goodness and beauty and justice, they speak in terms of “lame” vs. “awesome.” Which may just be an unfortunate semantic choice, but I worry that it’s more than that–that if truth and goodness and beauty and justice present themselves in forms that seem “lame” by their cultural standards, they will reject them. Which is one way in which maybe even Christian hipsters need to be evangelized.

That being said, I think the article is basically right–the best way to impress a hipster is not to try to be one but to be fully and authentically whatever you are.

Which may be one way in which they (Christians or not) help evangelize the rest of us!

Edwin
 
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