I wanted to be born again, but ......

I wanted to be born again, but....I didn't want to put my mother through that again.

When you hear most people discussing the term "born again", it's usually as the punchline to a bad joke. It's just a fact that the term "born again" sounds inherently unrealistic, and has become virtually synonymous with "kook" and "religious extremist", at least in the minds of the average person I know who is not one of them.

Naturally, the "born again" don't see themselves the same way. They see themselves as hip and happenin'. They're trying to turn their mega churches into weekly rock concerts in a desperate attempt to court and co-opt popular culture, but the fact remains that Christian Rock doesn't rock and the moment the lyrics betray that the music is Christian, there is a collective groan from most listeners, who don't want a sermon even if it is backed up by steel guitars and a drum solo. A phrase that became overly popular to describe this sort of phenomenon in the last election cycle was "putting lipstick on a pig". Christian Rock is the quintessential lipstick on a megapig, and "born again" is lipstick on Christianity.