Divine Comedy
April 1, 1996
One of the great questions of our day is: What are the key differences between a baby boomer and a baby buster, given the common denominator that they're both babies? The church where I work has a pastor whom we'll call Pastor X (that's not his real name; his real name is Pastor Y) whose specialty is ministering to baby busters. He's written a book on the subject: "New Whineskins: How to Reach a Generation of Sniveling, Complaining, Undisciplined Malcontents." (It's one of only three books to be published last year that was not written by George Barna.) I have my own theory. I believe the primary difference between boomers and busters can be summarized in a single word: Flannel. Flannel was a crucial element in the religious education of boomers. Most of what I know about theology I learned in flannel. We had a special guest lecturer in the Sunday school I attended as a kid--we called her the "Flannel Lady"--who had advanced training in flannel. She held us spellbound simply by presenting the characters of the Old Testament in flannel. (Those were simpler days. They didn't have any modern educational technology like computers or Ritalin.) To this day, no matter how hard I exercise my imagination, my entire mental picture of the Old Testament world is in flannel. Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potiphar's wife (who actually looked a lot like Delilah, except in a different color robe), and Jonah and the Big Fish (who also looked a lot like Delilah, the Flannel Lady being somewhat nearsighted) all exist in my mind in gentle pastels and natural fibers. Some writers believe this is why contemporary evangelical theology is so soft on issues like judgment and divine wrath. Flannel does not communicate anger effectively. It is a gentle ...
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