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Thank you for Brett McCracken's article describing "Hipster Faith" [September]. My husband and I are 30-somethings who have attended hipster churches in three states. Now that we have children, we long for the simpler days of Adventures in Odyssey and flannel graphs. Instead, we find our children glued to TV screens in their Sunday school classes, with gluten-free snacks but nobody who knows their names. And while the worship music is rocking, the preaching is surface level, primarily aimed at meeting emotional needs.

Hipster churches have their place and were great for us for a time. But eventually the hipster grows up. Then what?

Stephanie Hotine
Hayden, Idaho

McCracken needed to acknowledge the difference between "cool" Christianity and contextualized Christianity. Cool Christianity will sacrifice the gospel in order to gain the world's acceptance. The desire to please man rather than God began long before the 1960s.

In contrast, contextualized Christianity will adopt cultural expressions of its surrounding community. Few critiqued Hudson Taylor for adopting Chinese customs or Adoniram Judson for assuming Burmese dress. In this sense, some hipster believers are not forsaking the gospel—though they are forsaking a few sacred cows of former generations.

The issue is not beards and beers. Of course the pastor living in a wealthy urban community will not wear camouflage and drive a two-ton flatbed any more than a pastor living in Appalachia will sacrifice these necessities. The issue is whether Christ is preached.

J. Ryan West
Louisville, Kentucky

The article on hipster Christians was a wake-up call for people like me. I don't want to make people wonder what I am. Christ wasn't nearly as mysterious as we like to try to be. Confounding, yes, but he said who he was, what he came to do, and what he plans to do.

I will keep singing the old hymns. I'll continue the organic thing. I'll keep my heart open to all who need help. But I will also remember that I am called to be a light: not a dim, vintage lamp or a string of paper lanterns—a light.

Gileah Taylor
Destin, Florida

In "Ayn Rand, Goddess of the Great Recession" [September], Gary Moore rightly rejects Rand's moral teachings as deeply anti-Christian. But he unfairlyelides the distinction between economic libertarianism and Randism. Libertarianism is a doctrine about the proper limits of government. It holds that governments should not coercively redistribute wealth. Randismadds to libertarianism a doctrine about personal morality to the effect that there is no obligation to voluntarily share resources with others.

It is Rand's selfish morality, not her economic libertarianism, that should offend Christians.

Jason Baldwin
Birmingham, Alabama

We are grateful to have the opportunity to contextualize a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article on Moody's Investors Service credit rating update for Regent University, which Christianity Today recently republished [Gleanings, September]. We want to make clear that the article did not fairly represent the university's financial state. Moody's report clearly reflects that the university has taken appropriate, positive steps to create a sustainable budget model for Regent's future, but neither article emphasized that truth.

Moody's Investors Service credit rating was unchanged from its last report; Regent's credit rating was not downgraded in any way. When our report appeared last year, it was not nearly as positive, but no articles were written. From our perspective, this is a non-story. Also, after a comprehensive financial and academic review, Regent was awarded reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2009.

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November 2010, Vol. 54, No. 11