Attached to Paper Session
Meeting Preference
The label “Christian punk” has the ring of contradiction to it for many, and yet for the last 30 years, there has been a robust underground music scene comprised of bands and fans, mostly evangelical, who identify as Christian punks. One of the hallmarks of this identity, this paper argues, is an appeal to “radical authenticity” that is characterized first and foremost by a desire to feel shame. Feelings of shame stem from a dual rejection from either side of the Christian punk: an elder church-going generation who sees their identity as anti-Christian and a secular punk scene who sees Christianity as incompatible with the punk ethos. This double rejection serves as a confirmation that one is living the as authentically as possible by not conforming to these “institutional” demands. The operation of shame and authentic identity within this music scene is reflected more broadly in a number of different locations from disgraced Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll to Weird Christian Twitter. The paper draws on eighteen months of ongoing ethnographic research with interlocutors who identify with this particular subculture, including figures integral to its origins and success.
The paper argues that the identity formed by many evangelicals participating in this scene is reflective of a larger attitude toward evangelical identity and politics found particularly among late Gen X and early Millennial evangelicals. In brief, this attitude can be characterized as “authentic Christianity” where one who holds to this authenticity sees him or herself as pursuing what they understand to be a “pure” form of Christianity. Conflict with what are perceived as “dominant worldviews” is often a necessary aspect of this identity formation, used as confirmation that one is engaged in an authentic practice. On the one hand, they recognize that older generations do not understand the sound of the music or the fashion associated with it. That view is taken to be not just oppressive and “outdated,” but actually an inauthentic expression of Christianity. On the other, recognition that the “institution” of secular punk rock does not take “Christian punk” seriously is rendered as a sign that Christian punks are actually more authentically punk than secular punks because they defy the authority of secular punk identity.
Central to this conflict and the development of these forms of authenticity is the concept of shame which will be the central focus of the paper. The conflict with these two polarized positions on either side of “Christian punk” identity is characterized by a youthful defiance that also highlights feelings of shame as the prime indicator of a truly authentic Christian faith. The concept of shame qua authenticity is endemic of a wide range of identity positions among Millennial and Gen X Christians from the evangelical underground music scenes that concern this paper to phenomena like Weird Christian Twitter in the late 2010s.
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This paper analyzes the intertwinement of authenticity and the concepts of shame and shamelessness as these have been implemented in evangelical Christian punk identity formation. First, the dual rejection and shaming by both secular punks and conservative or “mainstream” Christians is embraced shamelessly as a marker of authenticity since, for many members of this music scene, living counter to any “majority” way of thinking is precisely where Christianity and the punk ethos meet. Second, the shame of sin was a primary thematic in Christian punk lyrics that paired with and reinforced this first mode. Christian punks narrated traditional evangelicalism as legalistic, stoic, and adverse to addressing “real” issues because they feared the consequence of shame associated with sin and often compared the “rules” of the punk community as they understood it to this kind of traditionalism.