I can’t make this stuff up. First there was the Cotton Patch Gospel, now this.

In a world where everyone feels they have the license to contextualize the gospel message as they see fit, we have all sorts of “ministries” out there pushing all sorts of “Christianity.” For some reason we refuse to believe that the sovereign Creator of the universe is still capable of saving His elect with that old gospel of 2,000 years ago. We feel that we must help God out by doctoring up the gospel to make it “relevant.”

Truth be told, we simply don’t trust that He is capable of saving His elect, that the gospel itself has the power to save, and that God alone is the one who does the saving.

So we end up doing it our way, (because we think we’re so much better at it than God). Thus we have a gospel message contextualized for the hip hop/urban crowd, the sports-nut crowd, the Gothic crowd, the teen crowd, the punk rock crowd, the biker crowd, and the list goes on and on. Now we have a gospel for the redneck crowd.

Meet Bud ‘n Bubba; self-described redneck Jesus freaks.

Bud ‘n Bubba are a couple of good ‘ole southern, God-fearin’, America lovin’ boys that love to make people laugh. Some folks call ‘em REDNECKS. Hailing from Booger Holler, these guys travel the south in their official “touring vehicle” (ok, it’s a travel trailer) and share their unique brand of humor with any unsuspecting audience they can pin down.

These guys are also on Facebook (here) and they even have a fan club whose only requirement is that you pledge that you love the Lord, your family, and your country, and, like Christ, you’re willing to lay your life down for all three.

I wish this was just another mockery by the world, but it’s not. It’s just another mockery by the professing church who thinks their strange fire is acceptable to God.

Bud ‘n Bubba’s ministry is explained on their website:

Combining ministry and entertainment? Combining redneck silliness with the message of Jesus Christ?

Oh, how we have lost the understanding of what it means to suffer as Christians. As countless brethren are persecuted around the world, being beaten, tortured, and killed for the faith; as children grow up without parents (who have either been imprisoned or martyred for Jesus Christ), we in America just can’t be amused enough.

Today, Bud ‘n Bubba’s desire is reach out to as many people as possible and use the power of laughter to share the message of hope.

Since when did laughter ever save someone? Where is one example of laughter being the impetus of salvation? Where does conviction of sin, a broken spirit, and repentance factor in during all this laughter? What is so funny about our sin and what it cost for Jesus Christ to atone for our sin? And in such serious matters one also has to wonder what’s so funny about the consequence of those who reject Christ’s substitute for their sins.

And, although I couldn’t find even a cut-and-pasted generic doctrinal statement on their website, I did find their Redneck Jesus Freaks temporary tattoo for only $2.00.

Does not even the church take Jesus seriously anymore? American Christianity has become one big running joke. It’s been turned into a carnival and there’s plenty of rides to keep you busy and entertain you to death.

It’s a true sign of the spiritual state of the visible church when the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ simply isn’t enough, but instead we must be constantly amused. But can we blame these guys? They’re only providing what the biblically illiterate, doctrinally shallow, tares of the mile-wide, inch-deep church of America demand: “More entertainment, less gospel truth . . . and we want it now!”

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4