Changing the Culture

Modern man is facing a dilemma. Enamored with modernity, we have rejected Christianity and its way of life. At the same time, we deplore the greed of Wall Street financiers and power brokers, taking advantage of the poor, hypocrisy of religious leaders, etc; all things that Christianity also deplores. We turn away from faith based programs which have demonstrated that inner city youth who regularly attend church are significantly less likely to be incarcerated. In the process we have stripped away the very thing that acts as a deterrent to many of the problems facing the post modern society in which we live; namely the relationship with the moral God that Christianity espouses.

The people who make up a society determine that society’s culture, for they have shared attitudes, goals, practices and morals which form a major component of the society’s educational and cultural formation. When its shared values are no longer held in common, or are denigrated, its culture disintegrates into chaos.

The refusal of our education establishment to teach morals, preferring a value neutral environment adds to the problem. The words of Joy Davidman in her book Smoke on the Mountain regarding this dilemma are perhaps more relevant today than when she wrote them in 1953. “For the present outburst of destruction, no doubt, secularism may be partly to blame. A man cannot obey a law he has never learned, and the failure of our education to give adequate moral and spiritual training is too well known to need discussion here.” She goes on to say that without belief in the promises and commandments of God we are left with a man-centered philosophy. Whether humanism or materialism fills the void, we are forced to deal with the inescapable fact that they both promote “this life and its immediate desires as the basis of all conduct.”

A values free environment devolves into a world with no values, with each individual determining for himself what is right and wrong. Without an objective standard, society cannot function in a predictable fashion. A society where life is not predictable quickly becomes unstable. Without the checks and balances which absolute moral and ethical values bring, it rapidly transitions itself into a self centered narcissistic society. It can only end up eventually destroying itself.
It is very easy to become infected by the environment in which we live, especially its narcissistic values which affect us personally. Our schools, in promulgating a values free education, promote all lifestyles as being equal and abhor any sort of judging. Without an objective standard to use as a gauge of what is right and wrong, our natural tendency is to gravitate to what is most advantageous to oneself, regardless to how it affects others. In the public arena, this is translated into what is the most good for the most people, instead of what is the common good for all people. This leaves the infirm, the elderly, the poor and the disabled at particular risk of being cast off. If everyone behaves this way, society quickly devolves into anarchy, living with the mantra of “might makes right”.

The way forward requires the development of authentic communities that undermine the individualistic isolation which society fosters. Expressing the love of Christ through developing relationships which seek to heal the brokenness around us, together we can make a difference and positively affect the prevailing culture. The church can become such a community as it builds relationships, promotes restoration, and practices love through service. But it requires getting out of our buildings and into the streets, the gutters and the byways. Are we ready for it?

Cultural Christianity

Slavoj Zizek, the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities wrote an article about culture. He stated that “’Culture’ has commonly become the name for all those things we practice without really taking seriously. And this is why we dismiss fundamentalist believers as ‘barbarians’ with a ‘medieval mindset’: they dare to take their beliefs seriously.” This viewpoint has heavily influenced American thought and life for the past half century. The meaning of the term “fundamentalist” has acquired a derogatory sense. When we hear the term, our first thoughts are not about the fundamental beliefs that define a particular viewpoint. Instead our first thoughts are more likely to be about quaint, narrow, bigoted beliefs held by such individuals. Zizek is correct in assessing how we tend to view fundamentalism.

Unfortunately, we have so closely identified ourselves with this view of culture that it has also affected our religious lives as well. This results in faith becoming something we practice without really taking it seriously. We easily go through the motions – go to church, read the Bible, and pray – without really thinking about them that much. Once they are over for the day we forget them and move on. Dallas Willard, in The Spirit of the DisciplinesThe Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives notes that many Christians believe that being a Christian has nothing to do with actually following Jesus or being like him as long as we believe the proper things about Jesus. With this worldview, the major difference between good Christians and good non-Christians is that one attends church on Sunday and the other doesn’t. It explains why many of the problems, such as divorce rates, among Christians and non-Christians are virtually identical. We can actually find ourselves uncomfortable if we are around people who really do take their faith seriously. I personally ran into this in high school when my liberal pastor was upset with me because I was quietly reading my New Testament on the hour long school bus ride to school. He also threatened to kick my mother out of the church because she was involved in child evangelism. According to him it was OK to be Christian, only don’t let it affect your life too much. It was fine to be a cultural Christian, just not a committed one.

When we look at the men and women highlighted in the Bible, we see a much different picture. As a cultural Christian, Daniel would have eaten the king’s food and prayed behind closed doors. Instead he refused the king’s diet and prayed in front of the open window, knowing that it would likely get him in trouble. As cultural Christians his three friends would have bowed down, saying to themselves that they weren’t really worshipping the king. Instead they resolutely refused. Queen Esther went before the king, even though it might mean her death. Peter and John, when commanded to cease preaching about Jesus, replied that the Jewish leaders would have to judge whether it was better to obey them or God. Each one refused to go along with the culture. Each one took their faith very seriously.

We can’t escape our culture. Living in culture is part of being human. But we can intentionally decide that we will refuse to let it control our lives. We can model our lives after Jesus and live incarnational lives. We can pattern our lives after Jesus, living out his commands. As you examine your life, do you find yourself a cultural Christian or someone who is totally sold out to Jesus Christ?

Flatland

In his fanciful book Flatland, Edwin Abbott describes a two dimensional world inhabited by triangles, squares and pentagons, etc. For flatlanders, there is no such concept as “up”. They live in and only know two dimensions. The sphere invades their two dimensional world, attempting to convince them of the gospel of the third dimension. Of course, being in their flat plane, all they see is the appearance of a point which expands into ever larger concentric circles until it recedes again to a point and disappears. Unable to convince the pentagon of the third dimension, the sphere finally shows him Lineland which has no width. The inhabitants of Lineland merely travel back and forth on their narrow line. The pentagon futilely attempts to convince the Linelander that there is width, to no avail. He is then shown Pointland, whose inhabitants bask in their pointdom, unable to comprehend either length or width. After finally being convinced of the existence of the third dimension, the pentagon is imprisoned for his heretical views. The sphere visits him in prison to comfort him. The pentagon says to him, “You showed me Pointland and Lineland. Although I knew there was both length and breadth, I couldn’t make them understand. Through this you convinced me of the third dimension. But what about the fourth and fifth dimensions?” To which the sphere replies “Nonsense!”

As humorous as this story is, it has a point. We have great difficulty comprehending things outside of our experience. In the rational world in which we live, we have difficulty understanding that we also live in a world which also has a spiritual dimension. The story of Elisha and his servant at Dothan (II Kings 6:15-17) illustrates the difficulty we face. When his servant fears for his life, Elisha prays for his eyes to be opened. He then sees horses and chariots surrounding Elisha, protecting them. It is easy for us to rationalize this story, saying that things like this occurred in Bible times, but don’t today. But they still do. A priest with whom I am acquainted was telling of an experience which happened to him. He was working among gangs. He was cornered by a gang of young men who were going to force him to take drugs. Suddenly the gang surrounding him melted away. At a later time he caught up with them and asked them why they left so suddenly. One of the gang members told him that there was a big guy up in the air above them, and he definitely was not happy. God had sent an angel to protect him from harm.

Like the pentagon in Flatland, we live in a world that contains more dimensions than we think. As St. Paul says, we are surrounded by heavenly principalities and powers. Just as Flatland was invaded by the sphere, preaching the gospel of the third dimension to the Flatlanders, so also our world was once invaded by one preaching the gospel of the spiritual dimension. Jesus came down to this world to show us who God is and bring us back into relationship with him. Just as the pentagon was persecuted for his views on the third dimension, so also are the followers of Jesus persecuted for their view of spiritual matters. Just as the majority of flatlanders had no concept of up, so most of the inhabitants of our world have little or no concept of the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged. Are you content to live in our three dimensional world, or do you see yourself living in the midst of a spiritual world?

Governmental Salvation

We have all heard the phrase “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” We have probably laughed at it, knowing that the person quoting it is often being sarcastic. But the phrase today has been modified, in dead earnestness, to be rephrased “I’m from the government and I’m here to save you.” There appear to be many in government who view government as the salvation of mankind. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi once responded to a question asked her with the retort “I’m trying to save the planet!”. Her statement illustrates how easily this viewpoint is affirmed among Washington politicians. There are also many in our country who look first to government to solve their problems. Unfortunately, our leaders don’t attempt to dissuade people from believing this. There is a belief in Washington as well as in state governments across the country that whether its healthcare, the financial crisis, the mortgage crises, corporate failures, climate change, or whatever new crisis that rises up, government will save us. In each case, government is portrayed as our savior. Government seeks to provide our security and take care of all our problems. As religion is pushed more and more out of the public square, government is poised to become the new god whom we are all expected to worship. Many citizens hold the same view. The journalist, Evan Thomas, recently stated on Hardball "In a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God."

But God will never play second fiddle to anyone. He will never allow any government or individual to usurp his place as creator and sustainer of the universe. King Nebuchadnezzer found this out while walking in his garden, and he become insane. Throughout history men and women have found out, to their chagrin, that God is bigger than they are. God is not one to be trifled with.

Today, we find ourselves living in a world very similar to that of the ancient Israelites who lived in Jeremiah’s time. Like we do, they lived in a tumultuous world. Facing the global and military economies of their day, they sought the favor of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian gods in their futile attempts to find security. They courted governmental alliances in order to have economic protection. Ultimately their attempts failed. They didn’t work for them anymore than they will for us. Ultimate security can never be found in men or government. They will always fail. We are already seeing this in the automotive bailouts that failed, ending in bankruptcy. Ultimate security can only be found in God. As Philip Yancy recently wrote in an essay in Christianity Today, “Christ exposed as false gods the very powers in which men and women take most pride and invest most hope.” Yet even with all of the lessons to the contrary throughout history, we still have a tendency to look to government to save us. But we will always find that governmental salvation is illusory.

The attempts of government to save us will always fail because societal ills come from the heart. Governments cannot deal with the heart, only God can. Governments can pass laws that we are expected to follow, but they will not change our inner motivation. Only God can change the heart. Only God can lead us to repent and truly change.

Our attempts to find security through governmental programs will fail because they are misplaced. We will eventually find that the governmental emperor has no clothes. We will eventually realize that it really has nothing to offer us. In the meantime, who are you looking at to save you, God or government?

Non Christian Worldview

T. S. Eliot, in an essay entitled Religion and Literature notes that “the author of a work of imagination is trying to affect us wholly, as human beings…. and we are affected by it, whether we intend to be or not.” He continues to say that most of the reading material written by contemporary authors that we come in contact with today is written by people who have no belief in the supernatural. He states that benefit can be found in reading such literature as long as we recognize the vast gulf that exists between our Christian frame of reference and that of the contemporary authors.

But how conscious are we of this gulf as we live in our post modernist, post Christian culture? Through the mass media and the printed word we are constantly bombarded, as Eliot says, by writers who “are really all working together in the same direction.” And for the most part, this direction is not towards God. Unless we are acutely aware of the tension between the Christian and the non-Christian worldviews, we are in danger of being sucked in by the prevailing culture that surrounds us.

How do we solve this dilemma? Totally avoiding the culture is not the answer. Eliot suggests that as Christians we must know both how we really feel about things and understand our own shortcomings. He says we have “the duty of maintaining consciously certain standards and criteria of criticism over and above those applied by the rest of the world; and that by these criteria and standards everything that we read must be tested.” We can’t take a passive approach to this, or we will be negatively affected. We must actively engage our minds, reflecting upon and evaluating all that our culture brings to us with our core beliefs. Too often we take a lackadaisical attitude towards our faith. We don’t see it as something that we should work at to make it sharper. We don’t, as Eliot states, maintain higher standards than the rest of the world. Therefore we fall under the same indictment as ancient Israel, for as God says “For lack of knowledge the people perish” (Hosea 4:6). Without the ability to test the things we read and see and hear we will be adversely affected by them.

Eliot’s comments also touch on the question of worldviews. Are the standards by which we evaluate things based upon a Christian worldview? Our worldview dramatically impacts how we view everything with which we come into contact. For instance, a Christian worldview makes room for the supernatural, while a materialistic worldview totally rejects even the possibility of the supernatural. Throughout our lives we are constantly developing and refining our worldview. It becomes so ingrained in the core of our being that we don’t even realize how much it is affecting everything in our lives. It affects how we view the world, our relationships with others and our relationship with God.

There is no question but what we are immersed in the world in which we live. We are constantly bombarded by the media, entertainment, the global economy, politics etc. All of these industries are attempting to grab our attention and gain our allegiance. The extent to which they succeed depends largely on how we interact with the beliefs behind their statements. This leads to two questions. What standards and criteria have I developed in my life? How effectively am I using them to evaluate everything I see and hear and read as I intersect with the culture in which I am immersed?

The Ten Great Freedoms

In a recent sermon on the Ten Commandments our pastor stated that “Rules without relationship equals rebellion.” Without a relationship with God, we lose sight of the reasons why the Commandments are important. We fight against them and find ourselves in revolt. When we are out of relationship with God and our fellow man, the Ten Commandments appear to be very strict and confining. This is part of the reason why there has been so much flack over the Ten Commandments being displayed in courtrooms and other places. But when we are in relationship with God and with each other, it is a different story. We find them freeing and helpful. They describe how we are to live with each other within a community.

A look at the life and times in which God gave the Ten Commandments is instructive. The ancient world was in chaos. Civilization after civilization was collapsing, never to rise again. This collapse occurred over a large portion of the eastern Mediterranean world. The civilizations of modern day Cyprus and Crete were destroyed. So also were those in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Along the coast, the civilizations of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt fell, as did those of Jordan and Iraq. Society after society was swept away. Life for the inhabitants of the region had become totally unpredictable.

It was in the midst of this calamity and chaos that God stepped in and gave his covenant, including the Ten Commandments. The Commandments talk first of all about what should characterize one’s relationship with God. He is the only one to whom we are to give allegiance. They go on to describe what things should characterize our lives in the midst of community. They describe how our relationship with God should be carried out in everyday life. We are to honor our parents, and avoid things like murder, stealing, lying, adultery and covetousness. For a society that followed these commandments life became more predictable again. In the midst of the chaos that was going on all around them they knew what to expect from their neighbor. If Sally had a relationship with God that told her how to live her life, and Joe had a similar relationship with the same God, both Joe and Sally had a pretty good idea of what to expect from each other. Therefore the Ten Commandments became a rallying point for a community experiencing a world of uncertainty, violence and chaos.

Ernst Lange, in his book Ten Great Freedoms says concerning the Ten Commandments, “But all begin “I, God, and you man, now we belong together. And if we are to remain together, then your life will look like this: You will have no other gods. You will honor my name. You will not run yourself to death. And you will live as a person in your family.” He goes on to speak of how following the commandments frees us from becoming enslaved to passions, vices and consuming desires. He notes that when we seek power, money, sex or status we become enslaved to them. When we constantly seek uninterrupted work or pleasure we lose the joy of life. Constant revolt against authority can be as enslaving as is slavish obedience. Continually treating others as competitors, seeking self gratification, practicing deception and envying others also destroys the joy of life and enslaves us to these passions.

Today we live in a world which has again become very unpredictable. Terrorism, corporate greed, and the breakdown of family and community are all around us. Perhaps we need the Ten Commandments again to teach us how to live. But it begins with each one of us. We must ask, “Am I enslaved by my passions and vices or have I been freed by the Commandments to truly live in community again”?

God Bless These Pagan Notes

A speaker at a student conference was once comparing both the positive and negative features of attending either a Christian or a secular university. After describing the benefits and detractions of each, he cautioned, “Just because you attend a Christian school doesn’t mean that you will receive a Christian education. If your professor, who may have received his education at a secular university, hasn’t integrated his field of study with his faith, his opening prayer at the beginning of class may be nothing more than ‘God bless these pagan notes’”. Too often Christian professors can unconsciously accept the assumptions of their discipline of study and meekly mention God’s name now and then.

Upon reflection, this raises an interesting question. Christian parents may send their children to a religious elementary or secondary school, or to a Christian college or university in order to provide them with a Christian education. But their children may not receive the Christian education hoped for. It all depends upon how well the teachers and professors have integrated their education with their own personal faith. The name “Christian” in the title doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Our schools are not the only place where this occurs. We can experience the same situation in seeking a Christian counselor. The mere fact that the counselor is known to be a Christian doesn’t say anything about the nature of the counsel he or she may give. Their advice may be totally non-Christian. It all depends on how well they have integrated their training with their faith. We have also seen the problem surface in the corporate scandals that have occurred during the past decade. Yet some of the individuals involved in the scandals were considered to be Christians. Faith and ethics sometimes appear to be divorced from each other.
But this problem doesn’t only affect others. It also affects all of us. Throughout our lives we have been learning many facts and ideas, organizing them, and developing our own personal philosophy of life. We have been influenced by our schools, our churches, our jobs, our friends, the media, and things we have read or heard. This information has come to us from both religious and secular sources. They all help us make up our own personal worldview. Oftentimes we aren’t even aware that we are developing one. But the worldview that we embrace affects all aspects of our lives. It affects our jobs, our parenting, and our relationships with others. It affects how we live out our faith. It influences everything we say and do. Have we also passively accepted everything we have learned and also occasionally bring God into the picture?

Today we live in what many have called a post Christian, post modernist world. We are faced with many competing philosophies. We confront New Age, existentialism, naturalism, postmodernism, etc. Most of them do not espouse a Biblical world view. Several are actually hostile to it. Yet many Christians have blindly accepted them without even questioning their background. They have not evaluated their own worldview from a Biblical perspective. They have accepted it without attempting to compare it to and integrate it with their faith.

We are constantly being bombarded with a non-Biblical worldview. How are we handling it? If we blindly accept it, we are doing as the professor above, saying in effect “God bless these pagan ideas.” Have we filtered everything through the filter of our faith? “Or are we really secularists in Christian clothing?” Have we integrated our jobs, our education, and our lives with our faith? Or are we really wolves in sheep’s clothing?

Dogs Don't Have Whiskers

A three year old girl once remarked to my wife “Dogs don’t have whiskers”. A short time later she was playing with our family dog, Yukon. Upon being shown that Yukon had whiskers, she immediately remarked, “Dogs don’t have whiskers”. In defense of the little girl, all of the pictures of cats that she had seen in books showed whiskers. But none of the pictures of dogs she had seen had them. As humorous as this story is, it has a point. Based on what she had seen in books, dogs don’t have whiskers. With her mind made up, evidence to the contrary just didn’t fit in her worldview of dogs. It would take more time and experience for her to comprehend that dogs do really have whiskers.

I wonder how many times do we experience the same as we go through life. It is very easy for us to have a similar attitude. In many cases it is related to the worldview we hold. At other times we don’t want to change our viewpoints. It is easy to express thoughts like “My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts”. This tendency affects many aspects of life. We take the attitude that one political party is always right and the other is always wrong. For many, the thought of even considering voting for a candidate of the other party never even crosses their mind. Parents whose children are in serious trouble with the law often state “But he or she is such a good kid”. Having our minds already made up contributes to both the racial and marital tension in our society. We prejudge those who have a social economic status that is different than ours. In each case, an inflexible worldview prohibits us from knowing the truth and developing meaningful relationships with others. We are either unable or unwilling to change our preconceived ideas.

In Jesus’ time, The Pharisees had preconceived ideas of what the Messiah would be like. They eagerly awaited his coming. But Jesus didn’t fit into their mold. The gospel accounts show Jesus clashing with them again and again. When he didn’t fit their definition of the Messiah, they rejected and eventually killed him. How many times we do the same thing with God? How many preconceived ideas do we have of God that are incorrect? Do we put him into a box and refuse to let him out? Do we tell him what he can or cannot do? Do we believe that he was actively involved in history during Bible times but not today? Too often the answers to these questions indicate that we really have placed God in a box. When we do, we have a distorted worldview.

But God refuses to be confined to a box. He will always break out. He invites us to give up our preconceived ideas and to seek to know him as he really is. It is the same invitation that Jesus gave to the Pharisees. He invited them to accept him as the Messiah whom they were anticipating. But they had to accept him on his terms, not theirs. He asks us the same. We have to accept him on his terms, not on our own terms. This requires us to change our thoughts and worldview. We have to put whiskers on dogs, so to speak. Lest we become entrenched in our own inaccurate beliefs like the little girl, we need to ask from time to time “What dogs in my life do I need to put whiskers on?”

Countering the Culture

T. S. Eliot, in an essay entitled Religion and Literature notes that “the author of a work of imagination is trying to affect us wholly, as human beings…. and we are affected by it, whether we intend to be or not.” He continues to say that most of the reading material written by contemporary authors with whom we come in contact is written by people who have no belief in the supernatural. Their worldview contains no place for God. God is not even considered to be on their horizon. Their worldview is often foreign to most Christians. Still, Eliot believes that benefit can be found in reading such literature, as long as we recognize the vast gulf that exists between our Christian frame of reference and that of these contemporary authors.

Looking at the problem of worldview from another perspective, the Russian writer Anatoly Kuznetsof was asked how he obtained a Christian worldview growing up in Communist Russia without access to a Bible. He stated that Russia’s refusal to ban the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky allowed Christianity to continue, even while the government tried to stamp it out. These two writer’s exposition of sin, failure and redemption, written from a thoroughly Christian worldview, had a profound influence upon him and the Russian people.

Today we live in what is called a post modernist, post Christian culture. There is a vast gulf between this cultural worldview and that of a Christian worldview. The prevailing culture will have an effect upon us whether we want it to or not. As examples, the moral permissiveness seen on most sit-coms will impact us. What we read in the newspaper and see on the evening news will affect our thinking. The books and magazines we read will affect our thought process. Therefore, it is important that we be aware of their potential impact on our lives. But how conscious are we of the gulf that exists between these competing worldviews as we live our daily lives? Through the mass media and the printed word we are constantly bombarded, as Eliot says, by writers who “are really all working together in the same direction.” And this direction doesn’t include God. Unless we are acutely aware of the tension between the Christian and the non-Christian worldviews, we are in danger of being sucked in by the prevailing culture that surrounds us.

How can we solve this dilemma? Some people have tried to avoid the culture that surrounds them. They isolate themselves in “Christian ghettos”. They often end up being marginalized, having little impact on the society around them. Others have embraced it lock, stock and barrel. They become assimilated in the culture and lose their distinctiveness. Totally avoiding the culture is not the answer. Neither is a whole hearted embrace. Eliot suggests that we must know what we believe and why. We must also know the areas where we are most likely to fail. Knowing that we could easily become part of the prevailing culture around us helps to keep us alert to the danger. Eliot says we have “the duty of consciously maintaining certain standards and criteria of criticism over and above those applied by the rest of the world; and that by these criteria and standards everything that we read must be tested.” Having a thought out standard allows us to effectively critique our secular culture. We can then accept the positive aspects and reject the negative ones. But I wonder how often do we evaluate what we read, hear, and see? Two questions come to mind. What standards and criteria have I developed in my life that I use to evaluate the worldviews around me? How effectively am I using them in everything I see and hear and read as I intersect with the culture in which I live?