Subculture Game Manual
This hat has nothing to do with the evangelical culture. It is just rad. Tucked in a dark corner of our basement storage room, there is a big, clear Rubbermaid stuffed with the artifacts of my youth. It’s so full that the lid doesn’t close all the way, which isn’t great. I somehow managed to get it down to one box. That’s something. Download ms access 2010 free full version.
I went down and dug the whole thing out a few weeks ago, after I wrote on the anomaly of the and the strange mix of nostalgia and angst it elicits in me. I was surprised at the way this seemed to strike a chord with readers. It occurred to me, as I read the comments and dug through the remnants of my own evangelical youth, that there is an entire subset of us that operate from a distinct cultural plane. I’m talking about the children of the late 70s, the 80s, and early 90s who were raised less in the fluorescence of American pop culture than in the soft glow of the Christian subculture. Like our secular peers, we wore zoobas and poet shirts and big, hot pink hair scrunchiesbut we also wore Jesus fish charms and WWJD bracelets and with catchy Christian slogans. We remember, of course, Ace of Base and New Kids on the Block, but our musical foundation was formed by Michael Smith, Amy Grant, DC Talk, the Newsboys. We were not allowed to buy those smutty teen magazines, so we were the ones who read Focus on the Family’s Brio and Breakaway instead.
So, for all who spent their formative years straddling two cultures, a list: Note: I realize this list is hopelessly skewed to the female experience. It’s because I’m a girl. You know you were raised in the Christian subculture if.
You had more than one Bible, at least one of them written specifically for “teens.”(Bonus points if the cover sported fluorescent colors and/or spiral shapes. Double bonus points if you ever wrapped one of said Bibles in duct tape to be “alternative.”).
You picked up the photo of a Compassion kid at some Christian concert with the best of intentions. (Your parents are still making that monthly donation.). You’ve ever thought about building that marble maze/pencil sharpening contraption from the beginning of the McGee and Me videos. You signed up for Sound & Spirit Music Club, even though your parents warned you that you’d forget to send that Phillips, Craig & Dean CD back and wind up paying for it. (Thanks to my friend Carra Carr for this one. For the record, she still has that CD.).
You ever participated in a Sword Drill, that intense competition to find a specific Bible verse faster than your Sunday School cohorts. You still find yourself stressed when asked by a pastor to locate the book of Hosea. Your comics were judging your prayer life.
You learned about love from Amy Grant and Michael W. (Somewhere, Somehow, baby.). You learned about dating from the Christy Miller series. (Bonus points if you were successfully deterred from “missionary dating” by the whole Katie Weldon and Michael-from-Ireland train wreck. Double bonus points if you’ve ever said, “I’m just waiting for my Todd.”).
You can sing all the words to both DC Talk’s “Jesus Freak” and the Newsboys’ “Shine,” and if you were talented enough, could probably do them as a mash-up. You ever wrote the following line in the front of your Bible: “ Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” (Notice mine there at the bottomalong with several other charming sayings of the era.).
You bolstered your commitment to sexual purity with any of the following: a purity ring, a True Love Waits pledge card, any book by Dr. James Dobson, or multiple repetitions of DC Talk’s song “I Don’t Want It” on youth group road trips. Triple bonus points if you too had this handy True Love Waits quote book.
You can still remember a good deal of Bible verses from your youth, but only if you sing them, Psalty-the-Singing-Songbook-style. “The Cafeteria Lady” is not primarily the person who scoops mashed potatoes in the lunchroom, but rather a humor column in your old Christian teen magazine, Brio. (Fifty bonus points if you know the bitter disappointment of trying to become their teen spokeswoman, “Brio Girl,” and being rejected.). You have “skanked” to the Christian ska band, The W’s song “The Devil is Bad” or the Supertones’ “Skallelujah.”. You ever stamped a Jesus fish emblem into a leather belt at summer Bible camp. What about you? What would you add to the list?
You read every Janette Oke book (Love Comes Softly, with all the awkward crying). You had a chastity key, or the key to your heart, you were supposed to give the boy you loved at your wedding (I lost mine in middle school gym class and my parents thought it was funny). You wore those bead bracelets with each bead representing one of the stages of Jesus’ death (I remember red was “blood” and blue was “water” and I think yellow was “heaven”) on a leather strip until it broke mid-November, several months after camp. This is so funny.
I had one foot in and one foot out and so identify with half of your list. And because i’m feeling confessional, i dated two boys in college before i met my husband. One, was a guy i met at IV, who i kid you not, went by the nickname Falwell(!). We drove to liberty university once to see the newsboys. The second boy was not a christian. He was a punky sort with blue spots artfully designed in his hair.
I caught his eye in the dance pit of a ska show. “i never met a girl who knew how to skank,” he told me. I did not tell him i learned at Creation and myriad supertones shows:). I would add the following: 1) The “Agapeland” children’s record series. 2) The “Music Machine” children’s record. 3) Carman’s “The Champion” and “Revival in the Land” – in general, his spoken word epics remain among the most unusual songs I have ever heard (i.e.
“Witch’s Invitation”). 4) Petra’s “On Fire” record. 5) Yes, Breakaway magazine, which led me to discover True Tunes News, which I later wrote for in the late ’90s.
6) Christian music videos, which were REALLY thrilling to me since we couldn’t watch MTV or VH1. There were VHS tapes that could be rented/purchased, and channels like Z that played some of these. 7) The endless hope that your favorite Christian band might cross over and reach a secular audience, thereby evangelizing previously unchurched ears. 🙂 That’s it for now.
Probably more will spring to mind later. 🙂 This was fun, Addie.
You only watched Saturday morning Christian Cartoons on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) such as: Gospel Bill, Mr. Quigley’s village, Colby’s clubhouse, Faithville and Miss Charity’s diner. You weren’t allowed to wear Abercrombie and Fitch but instead wore a Christian t shirt that said “a bread crumb and a fish” instead. As well as some other Christian variation on mainstream brands You listened to Adventures in Odyssey before bed and dreamed of one day going to Whits End and meeting the wonderful Mr. Whitaker yourself.
You read the Elsie Dinsmore Books instead of Goosebumps or any other secular series. You know the motions to Audio Adrenaline’s Big Big House (with lots and lots of room, where we are can FOOTBALL!).You were led to believe by a series of videos called Hells Bells that subliminal messages were planted in songs when you played them backwards and that certain rhythmic beats in songs (Christian or otherwise) were Satanic.You parents thought everything was Satanic, OR, almost worse, part of the “new age” movement.You attended Acquire the Fire I’m sure I’ll be thinking of these all day, but those are a few off the top of my head! I’m okay with the nostalgia of it. I’ve been thinking a lot about it these past couple of days, and I don’t think it was necessarily bad in and of itself. It just presented itself so starkly separate from the rest of the world, and that made it difficult when you found yourself smack dab in the middle of a gray area. You had no resources from which to draw.
I’m thankful that I had a happy youth and that I was protected from lots of the hard stuff out there, but at the same time, I wish that there had been a better bridge into real life. I wish there had been less kitsch, and more Christian artists willing to grapple with the hard things and give an honest, true perspective on it. But that’s another post for another day. What about hoping against hope that the CCM market would soon crank out a “healthy Christian alternative” to the secular bands you really, really liked but knew you shouldn’t be listening to?! Only three things on this list don’t apply to my past life, but I think I nearly doubled my total in bonus points.
Peter Pagan and Katie Christian made a great impact on my thoroughly True-Love-Waits-ified (and utterly nonexistent) teenage dating life. Now they should write a recovery manual for those of us who made it safely into our twenties and are hoping to kiss dating hello. 🙂 Side note: Have you ever read one of Tara-Leigh Cobble’s books? I think you would really resonate with so much of her writing! I am loving this post and all these comments so much! I parented during this era and am very familiar with all of it, as are my 2 sons (25 & 29). We were convinced that the big bad world would damage our innocent kids so we did all we knew to do in order to “protect” them.
Sadly our entire parenting style was based on fear and that never works. But you all survived and are able to laugh at your goofy and odd childhoods. I now offer up prayers for your “inner healing” at all the craziness we put you through! Oh my gosh, yes on every one of those! And yes for the Janette Oke books and Superbook!
I loved Superbook You could also add, “Did some sort of mime or human video either in youth group or on a youth missions trip.” I don’t know how widespread this was, but we had these big volumes of “Character Sketches” from Bill Gothard that used the traits of various animals to elucidate character traits. Now that I have some perspective on Bill Gothard’s ministry, it’s a little creepy, but I really liked those Character Sketches as a kid! Jeez, Addie, stop spying on my past life.
I still have all those CDs from my Sound & Spirit days, and I went on one of the Brio missions trips to Brazil. Psalty and the Donutman were intricate parts of my early childhood as well, and although I remember them fondly, I cringed when my daughter got a Donutman CD for Christmas last year. For one, the music is painful to listen to as an adult.
Two, most of the songs are actually talking and reading Bible verses. And three, why on earth is he called the Donutman?
I always wanted one of the Jesus Christ/Coca-Cola t-shirts. How about AWANA? Shoeboxes for Operation Carelift (my family went to the warehouse where they got them ready for shipping, and I made hundreds of the little rainbow-bead gospel bracelets there)? Chick tracts? Not being allowed to watch The Little Mermaid? I also had to cut the horns off my My Little Pony unicorns.
My experience of the Christian subculture may have been a little more on the conservative side than yours, Addie- CCM was a bit too worldly, but I’m pretty sure I still own nearly all of Michael Card’s albums. 🙂 Haven’t even thought of Music Machine in years, but as soon as I saw it, I thought, “it always makes this sound: whirr whirr chka bum bum (psssst).” Here’s one (mostly) for the boys: being encouraged to play rather than other fantasy RPGs. Or being told not to bother with any U2 after Unforgettable Fire (“they really lost their faith with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”). At my wedding, my atheist best man gave a speech reminiscing about all the music I subjected him to in college, and read out the full breakdown from DC Talk’s “Jesus Is Just Alright”: I’m down with the one/ who is known as the son/ etc. You could tell who in the audience had grown up in which subculture: half were laughing, half were lip-syncing. Wow, I’m at 10 of the 15.
I was really into the music scene particularly for the live concerts. (My first concert ever was DC Talk & Michael W Smith.) I’m not sure how many times I went to the Pacific NW’s Christian take on Woodstock called “Jesus NW”. Then I moved on to the more rock, punk, & ska based festivals. Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, Jars of Clay, Supertones, PFR, and the list goes on and on.
I have since then cleared my closet of my autographed discography, band t-shirts, and posters, but I know a high percentage of my allowance supported those bands. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Oh my goodness Christy Miller series! I devoured those and the Sierra series. I had a Brio pen pal for years, she lived in Hawaii which I thought was soooo cool. My roommate and I recently watched a bunch of McGee and Me videos on youtube – and proceeded to feel very, very old. The animation is practically ancient.
I grew up on Psalty too, and Adventures in Odyssey! Also, anyone remember Charity Churchmouse tapes and books? It was about a bunch of Christian singing mice with cheese-like names.
I used to choreograph backup dancer/gospel choir dance routines (for myself) to their songs. 🙂 And I most definitely went to a Point of Grace concert in seventh grade with my best friend and we got matching t-shirts. And oh yes sword drill, we called it Bible Drill. I admit I was darn good at it and went to a “regional championship.” This post and all the comments made me laugh so many times!
Ah, Christy Miller! I had forgotten all about Todd until reading this post. In addition to waiting for “my Todd,” though, I.really.
wanted to meet “my Gilbert Blythe.” Raised in the cross-section between evangelical and homeschool subcultures in the 90s, I read and re-read the Anne of Green Gables books SO many times. Regarding music, I wasn’t allowed to listen to CCM (too worldly!), so I would sneak it. I remember listening (rebelliously!) to Twila Paris and Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Haha no, kevin – skallelujah was the ska worship album (The Insyders i think?) and i totally played it for my family’s “worship” at a christmas gathering in the mountains hahahahahaha oh, addie – you had me DYING! We must be like exactly the same age.
When i read the “christy miller” paragraph, i got chills, pumped my fist, and laughed out loud involuntarily (loud enough to wake my baby in the other room;) my best friend literally called me and told me she’d found her todd when she met her now-husband. LOLreally loud. So glad i found you today. Although, to be honest, I’d never heard of the Christy Miller books until my daughter brought the first one home and started reading it. Someone mentioned a shout-out for PetraHow ’bout “More Power To Ya”.? That was my first experience of CCM, during ‘Fishnet,’ which was something very like Creation, only it was in Front Royal, Virginia. Major concert experience back in the day was a combination, Russ Taff, Sheila Walsh (Triumph in the Air!), and Mylon LeFevre concert.
I’ve been chuckling my way through all the commentsSounds like my early days as a believer, high school into college, yup. Fishnet was my church for awhile (age 12-15 or so) and almost everything on the list and other comments I related to that time period in my childhood Except for Brio I ended up getting that and reading it while living in Africa after moving from Front Royal even met someone from Brio (editor?
I think can’t remember for sure) and me and some of my friends in Ethiopia got our picture taken and was published on the back cover a few months later 😉 Then one of my best friends would let me borrow his breakaway when he was done and he’d read my brio lol and heck yeah, Petra – also a lot if the kids at Fishnet were into the Christian “punk” scene 😉 MxPx and Ghoti Hook! Audio Adrenaline, NewsboysDC talk we thought we were so cool (but to be fair I still listen to some of that occasionally nowadays lol). I hated mornings, but I woke up early every Saturday morning and laid in bed listening to Jungle Jam and friends and the special series of Adventures in Odyssey and the other shows that were on during the Saturday morning program.I am sad that I can’t remember the names anymore.
🙁 I got to go see Psalty and the gang “in person” once and it was amazing! And oh the Donut Man.the one that sticks in my head most is the Christmas episode, with the huge star.oh man. And Sugarcreek Gang!!! I don’t think I heard them on the radio, but I did collect and read all the books! Right along with the Mandie mystery series! The reason I bring that book up. I have been long disenchanted with the Evangelical subculture.
When I read Christian Smith’s book about a year ago — I finally felt that I understood why. It is one of the reasons I recently abandoned “Evangelicalism” for Catholicism.
Many have gone over to the Eastern Orthodox Church (essentially the “other lung” of the Catholic Church) for the same reason. Another recommended read is Francis Beckwith’s book “Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic”. Francis Beckwith was well-known in the Evangelical world and was even the former president of the Evangelical Theological Society up to 2007. Basically, the Evangelical paradigm suffers from a chronic need to “find itself”, and constantly re-invent the wheel, because it has detached itself rom any sustaining apostolic, catholic, creedal roots. (with the possible exceptions being the confessional churches like the Anglican, traditional Lutheran, Orthodox Presbyterian or Presbyterian Church of America).
As if the Holy Spirit died with the last of the apostles in the 1st century, only to be revived again in northern Europe in 1517! When you start from a 16th-century innovation of “sola scriptura”, you get what you ask for. I don’t intend to be divisive at all. But I really feel evangelical protestants owe it themselves to really examine their roots. Why are you “protesting” against, anyway? Definitely the Bible one, the Compassion one, the Sword drill one and OMG.
The Christy Miller one. I am working and I wanted to die laughing in my cubicle about that one!!! I was definitely deterred from missionary dating from the whole Katie debacle. And I wrote letters to my future husband due to the whole Todd thing and had a huge idea that my whole entire life would be just like the Christy books, all rosy and pretty. I actually picked them up recently and it was all so sugar-coated I wanted to gag.
Video Game Subculture
But man in high school they were the BIG DEAL!!!! I also had a purity ring, and signed at least one commitment to purity. And I probably still have the Psalty video we owned memorized. McGee and Me was a total favorite as was Adventures in Odyssey. When I was 10 I went to Whit’s End in Colorado Springs for the first time and I was so excited! Jesus Freak was the first ‘hardcore’ song I heard. And I had a Brio subscription or got them through the library for years.
Man I loved reading this post and the comments!!! Glad I’m not alone in these silly things!!
I was always the kid who asked questions in Sunday school that made everybody uncomfortable. “But how do we really know there’s even a God?” “What if God used evolution to create everything?” “What’s really wrong with dancing/drinking/rock music, etc.?” “What’s wrong with a guy having an earring?” It took me a long time to understand why my questions were routinely ignored. They were off limits. We weren’t supposed to think that hard.
So I doubled down and kept looking for my own answers. When I was diagnosed with MS in 1990, the wineskins holding my evangelical faith, bursting at the seams most of my life, just couldn’t take any more. I lived as an atheist for three years. I’ll never know how I’d have fared during that time if I were raised in a different tradition. What I do know is that the evangelical tradition could never even handle my philosophical questions, so it certainly couldn’t prepare me for real suffering.
I loved reading this article and all the posts! I was a child of 1987 with 3 younger sisters and a younger brother who all grew up through the 90s with the same childhood experience 😄🤓 😆haha but it was THE BEST CHILDHOOD EVA!
Though our parents had been youth leaders from a small town on a big mission to travel and spread God’s word Our dad was criminal at wearing youth Christian slogan shirts and being the loudest a and proudest at Youth camps. Do any of you remember Cranston Thorndike and the Dragon? The Story of Little Tree? Nathaniel the Grublet? The Vinegar Boy?
My dad worked for Lexicon/Word and would bring all of these home for me. He also brought home albums of Stryper, Leviticus, Jerusalem, Light Force (that later became Mortification, one of my all-time favourite bands), and all sorts of Christian heavy metal, hard rock, white metal, etc. I’ve never met anyone else who had heard of Cranston Thorndike, though I do have a friend who had Nathaniel the Grublet. They were an integral part of my childhood. I remember lots of things from your list, but the things that really made it through, due to circumstances in my life, were those I just mentioned. I never read the books you’re talking about, but instead read Frank Peretti, and later Ted Dekker, among others. I met my husband in the underground Christian music scene over two decades ago.
It’s funny how similar and yet so very different our upbringings were.
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(May 2017) Sub Culture is a submarine action/adventure computer game, developed by and published. It was released in 1997, and was often praised as a solid title, but received little recognition and had only limited sales.
Story In the opening sequence of the game, a soup can discarded from a boat smashes the home of what seem to be (and are) a race of tiny submarine humanoids. The player takes the role of the survivor of this disaster, a freelance sub captain who must buy, sell, trade, and pirate his way to the top in a cutthroat world of underwater adventure. When you start the game, you discover that the Bohines, a nation in the game, are at war with the Prochas, another nation.
To survive and prosper, you can engage in various mining or salvage operations, recovering enormous bottlecaps, cigarette butts, thorium crystals, and pearls, all of which are valuable commodities sellable in cities. However, one must watch out, as both mutant fish and dastardly Pirate subs lie in wait for the unsuspecting. Once the player has built up enough cash, they can begin to exploit a form of 'stock market' in which various commodities can be purchased and resold at other locations or times for higher prices. Should these mundane activities begin to become boring, the player can also take on various missions for either of the two warring nations.
Subculture Examples
As the game progresses, these missions become progressively more difficult and dangerous, ranging from dropping depth charges down the air vents of an underground base to attacking nuclear-powered torpedo-firing walking tanks. Eventually the two nations come to terms in order to meet and defeat their mutual foe, the Pirates. The final mission consists of an all-out assault by both nations against the concealed Pirate city, with the player shooting their way through heavily guarded tunnels to plant a bomb next to the city. Gameplay The gameplay is rather straightforward, placing the emphasis on buying and trading goods found in the environment for weapon, shield, and utility upgrades. There are also missions available, which depict some of the turmoil between the Bohine, Procha, and the Pirates.
By accepting missions for different cities, the player can unlock new technologies, equipment, and is given discounts for certain goods. External links.