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December 14, 2009

Gimme that Christian Side Hug

The viral video has received some negative attention over the past few weeks. But the joke’s on whom?

Ruth Moon

The “Christian Side Hug” video is going viral, but don’t take it too seriously.

The video quickly loses its humor if you watch the whole four-minute spoof. Yes, it’s a spoof, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Before the spoof was outed, though, The Huffington Post and other bloggers took it seriously. “I'm sick to death of these lunatic Christians giving [everyone] who follows the teachings of Christ a bad name,” write LindseyLou on feministing.com.

It’s a little disconcerting that anyone would take it seriously: The rappers sing that “no front hugs and no kissing” are allowed and includes a repeated line like “Democrats shouldn't be in Congress.” As Steve Johnson wrote, the line, "When I hug people, I leave room for the Holy Spirit," could be the giveaway.

The Tribune columnist spoke with lead performer Ryan Pann, the 23-year-old Californian who wrote the song.

"We think it's hilarious because some people think (the video) is serious," said Pann, reached at The Father's House, a Vacaville, Calif., church that sponsors the Encounter Generation Conference, an annual Christian youth gathering at which the video was shot. "It's not a mockery of the faith," Pann emphasized. "It's a mockery of the act of the Christian side hug."

It’s unclear why the authors put the video on the Internet. A joke in context at a Christian youth conference is very different from performing in front of the average YouTube watcher.

Satire is hard to do well in any situation, but satire directed at the Christian audience seems to be particularly difficult. For example, comments on the “Disclaimer” of the Wittenburg Door satire site often immediately begin discussing reasons the satire fails. It’s difficult to join in the fun if someone is poking fun at beliefs you might hold sacred. To some extent, that’s part of the territory of satire; if you’re not making someone uncomfortable, you’re probably not very funny.

Do you think the Christian side hug video is good satire? What would good satire directed at Christians look like?

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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on December 14, 2009 10:26 AM

Comments

The song is based on the work of Jon Acuff at http://stuffchristianslike.net/ (which is loosely based on the blog and book http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

I don't read regularly, but it is often funny. And Jon has been recently profiled in the Atlanta Journal Consitution, CNN and other news sources because he has raised over $60,000 since Thanksgiving (via his blog and twitter) to build kindergartens in Vietnam.

Posted By: Adam Shields | December 14, 2009 12:27 PM

An additional question would be what is the object of the satire? The faith itself or the subculture which in of itself is not the faith. For example making fun of a dashboard Jesus may not be poking fun at Jesus himself but is a jab at what may be in the mind of some a cheapening of the faith.

Posted By: Basil | December 14, 2009 12:28 PM

As a mother of a middle school boy who is involved with youth activities in several areas of his life, I have to say it's a subculture thing. Youth programs create a lot of content on the net for everything from "remember when" to goofy infomercials about upcoming events.

And while a joke performed at a youth conference is very different than an average YouTube watcher, I'm hard pressed to believe that most people would take it seriously. Good satire is difficult for Christianity but the standard may be a little different for youth programs; I'd almost say a little self mocking might be mandatory.

Maybe a better question to ask is about the subculture of those reacting, i. e. Huffington Post, feministing: isn't it their purpose in blogging to look for fresh fodder to cheer or jeer? It's good to have these conversations but it's hard not to think there are bigger things to get worked up about when I see the things my 7th grader is dealing with daily.

Posted By: Amy Steele | December 14, 2009 5:32 PM

The problem with the satire here is that some people are, in fact, like that. The Christian high school a few of my friends went to actually had rules prohibiting front hugs, and my mother works at a Christian university where she has to keep her political affiliations hidden for fear of backlash from her very Republican colleagues.

Whether the satire works could be measured by how many Christians who've run into these things before laughed-- I did-- or, more seriously, by how many people rethink their presentation to others after seeing it.

Posted By: Lylassandra | December 14, 2009 6:33 PM

The video doesn't look like a satirical spoof at all. It looks like an earnest affirmation of another creepy and bizarre practice of the Purity-Ball virginity-fetish crowd. Once this stuff leaks out into the larger world which greets it with a torrent of ridicule, it's only then that the Christians claim that it was 'a joke' or 'a test' or 'a satire.'

Posted By: Kathleen | December 18, 2009 7:51 PM

the real issue is a church culture that has helped perpetuate the perception that we Christians would "ape" the wider cultural forms to promulgate strange, moralistic, gnat swallowing legalisms...

as if such legalisms aren't bad enough...we make ourselves look lame too.

even if it was a joke...the reactions are understandable because Christians are considered (and fairly so) a narrow, humorless group of people deeply concerned with control.

it's a real challenge for us...one we created.

Posted By: nathan | December 19, 2009 2:24 PM

Please........chill....

Posted By: Donna | December 31, 2009 6:06 AM

The author of the article wondered why something shown at a youth conference would be posted on Youtube for the world to see. It was on Youtube, but it wasn't posted for the world to see it - that just happened. It was posted because the kids who went to the youth conference want to see it again and Youtube is a way to email it to them so they can relive the experience. Youtube is the new "roll of pictures" which was the new "family vacation slide show".
The only difference is that it happens to reside on the internet where others can stumble on it.

I'm not affiliated with the video or the conference, but a similar thing happened recently when my pastors went to jibjab and posted their faces on video for one or our events. It was hilarious and we asked them to Youtube it so we could play it again and share it with those in our church who weren't able to attend the event. It was hilarious for us. People who don't go to our church wouldn't get it.

Posted By: Katja | January 4, 2010 8:08 PM

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