I’ve seen the phrase “Jesus is my homeboy” plastered all over the place, especially on icons and avatars used by many teen Christians. I get where people are going the whole idea of that. I guess they are trying to share their religion in a cool and welcoming manner. But I find this disrespectful in many ways. First of all, the word “homeboy” has a generally negative connotation. It is defined as “A fellow male gang member.” and “A person from the same locality as oneself.”, “A close friend.” First of all, associating our Lord Jesus with gangs is completely unacceptable. Even acknowledging the fact that it is meant in a humorous manner, that does not justify what is essentially being said. There is still that second definition, and maybe that’s where it gets hard. Yes, Jesus is my best friend, for many reasons. But when taken in this context, it sounds like we’re comparing our Savior to our many other buddies we have on earth. It sounds like we’re trying to bring Jesus down to our level, and HE IS NOT. He is much greater than us. He died for us. He ROSE AGAIN FOR US. None of my earthly friends are capable of that.

Let me end with this: I just bought an album called Heath McNease Fan Club Meets Tonight, and one song titled “Where I’m Not Wanted” directly addresses this subject: “Jesus ain't my homeboy, He's not a bumper sticker or a t-shirt logo for you to put on boy, He's not a marketing scheme, so stop targeting teens, show Him respect and His heart can be seen”

God bless,

tori