Boy, such a question on the surface appears counter-intuitive to mention believers, rednecks, and atheists all in the same breath! Those who take it personally may protest, “I am a Christian! I am certainly more cultured than a redneck, and I believe in God! This is all nonsense, and what are you suggesting by your question, anyway?”
Well, the reason behind the postulation is you just might be a redneck if…, and you might even be a practical atheist if…. In other words, is it possible that a believer can have more in common with a redneck or an atheist than he or she might think due to a behavior that intentionally bucks the authority of God and ignores Him in the daily routines of life as if He doesn't exist? The answer is yes.
My intent is not to offend but to inform, to reveal, not to ruffle feathers (maybe just a little), in order for you to reflect upon your lifestyle against the truth of Scripture. We got believers out there thinking they are living right in the eyes of God but in reality, they are living by what is right in their own eyes. This is the collateral damage of spiritual ignorance. Being out of touch with God, approaching the truth of Scripture tangentially and rarely intersecting or making personal application, and treating the Bible and church life as a waste of time or as irrelevant are all byproducts of an unhealthy spiritual relationship with Yahweh. As the saying goes, “The fruit reveals the tree.”
Is it any wonder that ignorance of the absolute truth (Scripture), ungodliness, and apostasy is swelling among the rank of believers as we move closer to the end time? Faithfulness to God is bleeding; it is obvious because the Scriptures are not the rule of life; believers are doing what is right in their own eyes. It is ironic that people claiming to be Christians want to go to heaven when they die but could care less about Him and His will or revel in His presence in the here and now, only in the hereafter! Are these the values of a true believer according to Scripture? Of course not.
I am not as optimistic as others that things will get rosier as the destiny of mankind without Christ moves ever closer to the genesis of the tribulation period. Prophetically speaking, those will be some rough seven years for the inhabitants of the earth (Jer 30:8-9; Mt 24:21-22; Rev 6-19). Think of it; at the time of the rapture of the Church, those left in the wake will mean in that precise moment of a twinkling of an eye that there is not a single person, numbering into the billions, remaining on the face of the earth that knows the Lord as their Savior. Exactly when the first conversion takes place on earth after the rapture no one knows but God. Many, however, will be saved during the tribulation period, but more will not.
That is why I am suggesting that this question concerning the behavior of believers having more in common with rednecks or atheists than Christlikeness is more a reality than you might think. Your initial reaction to the question would not be uncommon or surprising, but the answer to that question could prove to be more evident in the lives of believers if you discovered that your behavior parallels less like Christ and more like a redneck or an atheist. I wished that this conversation was surreal rather than real. You could reject the notion, “Oh, that is just his interpretation what does he know?” Or you could take this seriously and reflect upon what is being said and then decide.
You see; in spite of what you may think about a redneck or an atheist, there is a shared signature of behavior behind those storefront words – God’s authority is not recognized in life. The former is driven by willful ignorance and the other is a flat-out denial of anything God – a never-God mentality. Either way, both promote the absence of thought, word, and deed of anything God to the point He is non-existent in the life of such an individual.
The redneck does acknowledge God infrequently, but the atheist denies God continually. Both share self-will as more important than the will of God. What makes our behavior any different than those who are lost anyway? What can we do as believers that the lost man can’t? Are we doing what the lost man can’t? If not, you might be a Christian redneck!
The redneck does acknowledge God infrequently, but the atheist denies God continually. Both share self-will as more important than the will of God. What makes our behavior any different than those who are lost anyway? What can we do as believers that the lost man can’t? Are we doing what the lost man can’t? If not, you might be a Christian redneck!
By comparing our behavior to the life of Christ instead of others, we may discover that we share a closer affinity with a redneck or an atheist in ways we never thought possible! Who would have ever thought that a born-again believer could be a mishmash or potpourri of Christianity, redneckism, and atheism! It is like oil and water in the same container but they don’t mix too well, but the behavior has a way of revealing contradictions in our life; our walk is not matching our talk.
Have you ever noticed that in our best days, sinful behavior has a way of making us look hypocritical; “I can’t believe I just thought that or said that or did that!” We act more like sinners rather than saints (saved sinners). Are you relating? Genuine believers do not lose the biggest baggage of all at salvation, the sinful nature, but even so, our behavior should not be floating around in the same container as redneckism and atheism (cf. 2 Cor 6:17).
I guess we should talk about the meaning of a Christian redneck; we all got the meaning of an atheist down who claims not to believe in God and who thinks, speaks, and acts as if there is no God. A Christian redneck is a bit more convoluted walking in two worlds. What comes to mind when you hear the word redneck, anyway? I don’t think anyone knows who coined the word redneck, but supposedly, it originated around the mid-19th century and had reference to the back of the neck being sunburned from working outdoors (Oxford Dictionary).
In one country there was a political affiliation symbolized by the wearing of a red handkerchief or red scarf around the neck, hence, rednecks. Redneck eventually became a term expressed in the pejorative or expressing disapproval. It was considered crass, unsophisticated, and/or lowbrow, closely associated with poor rural whites of the southern U.S. It kind of makes me wonder if they were ever considered privileged whites…? I can relate to this stereotype because I have been accused of being a RACASU (pronounced, rack-a-sue), meaning rude and crude and socially unacceptable.
Similar in meaning are words like “cracker, hillbilly, and white trash.” When I played in the Babe Ruth league down in south Florida during my 13-16 years of age, the name of our team was “Crackers,” stitched in a mustard-colored thread right across the front of our black cotton baseball uniforms. Where was the PC crowd back then? Jeff Foxworthy would probably entertain the idea that “If you wore the word ‘Cracker’ on your clothes, you might be a redneck!” “That be me.”
It was during the 20th century that this term grew like kudzu to cover “poor, dirty, uneducated, racist Southern white man,” often seen as backward and opposing progress. Isn’t it amazing how many words can be packed into one word like sardines in a can that “goes south” on us! That phrase “going south” reminds me of a conversation with someone who did not like that disparaging expression, “went south.” Why not “went north, east, or west?” Perhaps the south was only perceived as backward and non-progressive? You might be a redneck if you are directionally biased; I suppose.
Why do all the poor people seem to live on the “south side” of any town? Snobs (or the better than) live on the north side, and the Snopes (the less than) live on the south side! You don’t want to live on the south side of Chicago, for instance, because according to the singer/songwriter Jim Croce, it is the “baddest part of town” because of Leroy Brown! Even in our town of Cleveland, many with money locate on (you got it) the north side.
I live on the south side of town. It must be my inescapable southern roots, living in the South on the south side of town. If you live in the South on the south side of town, you might be a redneck? In my experiences to this day, I have never seen any privileges the profilers talk about being a white skin male! If ever there was a man who felt like he didn’t belong in this world, it would be me. Being a sojourner and a pilgrim as a believer suits me to a tee. Remember these lyrics?
This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
“That be me.” According to the Dictionary of American Slang by 1975, a redneck was referred to as “a bigoted and conventional person, a loutish ultra-conservative.” The southern redneck is stereotyped as “God-fearing [that’s me], gun-toting [that’s me], truck driving [don’t own one], inbred bumpkin [that may explain my DNA?]” (http://daily.jstor.org/redneck-a-brief-history/).
In 2007, Jeff Foxworthy, who had attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, by the way, used successfully his comedic theme, “You might be a redneck if…,” to “cajole listeners to evaluate their own behavior in the context of stereotypical redneck behavior” (source?). This is precisely my intent here to wheedle believers into evaluating any possible redneck or atheistic behavior on their part in the context of Scripture truth, but before I do that, allow me to quote a few of Jeff Foxworthy-isms as a matter of course and to interject some humor to ease the strain.
You might be a redneck if you think the stock market has a fence around it.
If you ever lost a loved one to kudzu, you might be a redneck.
You might be a redneck if you’ve ever been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
If you consider the fifth grade as your senior year, you might be a redneck.
You might be a redneck if your dad walks you to school because you’re both in the same grade.
If you have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say Kool Whip on the side, you might be a redneck.
You might be a redneck if you mow the front yard and discover a car.
If you think that beef jerky and moon pies are two of the major food groups, you might be a redneck
You might be a redneck if you’ve ever made change in the offering plate.
If the tobacco chewers in your family aren’t just the men, you might be a redneck.
You might be a redneck if on your first date, you had to ask your Dad to borrow the keys to the tractor.
If your parakeet repeats, “Open up, police,” you might be a redneck.
You might be a redneck if in tough situations you ask yourself, “What would Curly do?”
Following Jeff Foxworthy, Duck Dynasty came along and expanded the meaning of rednecks to include rich, clean, countrified, educated, and business-savvy people, non-racist, but still considered redneck, nonetheless, with their long hair, God-fearing, gun-toting, and camo-sporting lifestyle! They definitely were not ducking their redneck heritage while laughing all the way to the bank! Well, you can see that the meaning of redneck has become more jumbled since the mid-nineteenth century, but again, when you hear the word redneck today, what comes to your mind?
As I said previously, both rednecks and atheists share a common denominator which also characterizes the behavior of some of those claiming to be born again believers – going through life as if God doesn’t exist; I get atheists doing that but not Christian rednecks. Can Christians act like this? Without a doubt. On Sunday we may think about God, but Monday through Saturday it is definitely all about us. Even if we give God a tithe, we think that the remaining 90% is ours to do with as we please, to do with whatever belongs to us as we want.
The reality is we do not own anything; it all belongs to God, but do we first consult the Lord over the management of anything that supposedly belongs to us? For many of us, God is not a part of any decision-making process, except for those things or situations that are out of our control. Our attitude and approach to practically everything have become more self-focused than God-focused. We have essentially turned 1 Cor 10: 31 around to mean,
“Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do everything for personal glory.”
Easter, Christmas, and an occasional Sunday we will offer God our due and, of course, cry out to Him in those unpredictable OMG moments. Other than that, we ignore Him, snub His authority, treat Him with contempt, and go about our rat-killing as if God doesn’t exist. No wonder believers question the love of God or accuse Him of abandonment in times of difficulty! There is nothing in the think or heart tanks of Scripture truth when a crisis hits the fan. The supremacy and sufficiency of Christ in the mind of most believers are considered too abstract and remote to live in that spiritual reality. Uh, you cannot live for God through the sinful nature….
We find ourselves interpreting the world around us through our subjective experiences, through our own eyes, and not through the eyes of the objective truth of God’s Word; herein is the essence of a Christian redneck or being a practical atheist as a Christian. God’s authority is ignored, He is excluded in the life to the point of non-existence, and His Word is not the rule of life or the standard of living. It is a pagan and unrealistic worldview which brings us to Judges 21:25 (cf. Jdg 17:6), a negative quality that pretty much characterized a whole nation for roughly four centuries,
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
This didn’t happen overnight; it was a slow process of spiritual erosion. The spiritual downward migration began with the death of Joshua and those who served directly under him. From the lofty perch, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh 24:15), everything proceeded down the slippery slope to this spiritual melee, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg 17:6; 21:25). When everyone is running on their own authority, friction and collision are inevitable. Moses had addressed a degree of laxity among the people toward the things of God and instructed them not to go there when they entered the promised land,
“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today – every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes” (Deut 12:8).
They did it anyway once the spiritual influence of Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and those serving under them died. Not only is Judges 21:25 an accurate definition of human opinion in general, but it is also the modus operandi [or routine] of a Christian redneck or an atheist which is why some accuse believers of being practical atheists – living life as if God does not exist.
God’s authority is rejected and replaced by a self-serving attitude; we see its culmination in the demand for a king (1 Sam 8:4-7). “Like all the nations” became the template of life, not the ways of the LORD. There’s another word for it, rejection of God as the Ruler of life and replaced with another set of eyeballs – man. If the Word of God is not the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice, you might be a redneck! <><
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%20makeover%2045x63.png){kind=small}
 |
| To Part 2 |
