Support It: CxPC

CxPC stands for Christ and Pop Culture and it’s an uncommonly bright corner of the internet.

The missions of CxPC is "to acknowledge, appreciate, and think rightly about the common knowledge of our age.” They pursue this by taking pop culture seriously and by thinking deeply and critically about the creative and cultural works we consume. Although the writers’ critical point of view starts from a positions of broad Christian orthodoxy, CxPC consistently publishes work that offers accessible insight to general readers. At its best, Christ and Pop Culture doesn’t just give readers a Christian reading of pop culture, it offers deep reflection on the moral and existential questions animating late-modern culture.

Why is it good?

Everyone makes sense of life through the stories they receive and retell. As humans, we understand ourselves through the stories we share and find ourselves a part of, so making sense of popular stories helps untangle the mess of hopes, fears and longings that direct and define us.

Apart from the value of the work, CxPC pursues that work in an exemplary way. This is not a content mill, turning out hot takes on every trending hashtag. It’s a publication humans can keep up with and linger over, even in its digital form. Writer’s for the site start from the same core commitments but can and do arrive at different conclusions. This plays out in the private member’s group in profitable and often enjoyable ways.

CxPC’s community alone is worth the price of admission. Christ and Pop Culture is free but readers can subscribe for $5+/month to support the site and get access to several benefits. Members get exclusive access to long-form articles in the CxPC digital magazine, free monthly ebooks, and access to a private Facebook group. If you’re someone who ever buys books from InterVarsity Press or Crossway, you should just stop reading and go sign up now.

But a word needs to be said about the Members-Only Community. Despite firm commitments to Christian orthodoxy, or rather because of them, CxPC's community is uncommonly open and curiously pleasant for an online space. There are few other places I’d rather go for a movie/TV/book/game recommendation and still fewer where I go to engage with differing but generous views on culture, faith, and even politics. It is a bright corner of the web in a time when disconnecting is more and more appealing. In fact, I considered deleting Facebook but counted the loss of access to the Christ and Pop Culture community too too costly.

So, if a commitment to slow reflection, firm convictions, open dialogue (and hilarious GIF battles) are valuable to you, supporting CxPC is an investment you can feel good about.

Try these first

• Walking in Joyce Byers’s Footsteps: Motherhood in a ‘Stranger Things’ World
• The Taste of Strawberries: Tolkien’s Imagination of the Good
• As ‘Game of Thrones’ outpaces its source material, what’s the cost of its ongoing narrative?
• Full disclosure: I wrote this one - Stranger Longings: Belonging and Adoption in ‘Stranger Things 2’