Christ versus Culture
by Ed Harrell
via Christianity Magazine, June 1988, p. 11
Reinhold Neibuhr, along with others, argued that all religion tends to be captured by its culture. Rather than standing in judgment of the world around them, most religious people find ways to give divine sanction to their society.
I have no difficulty in seeing that in others. Having spent a lifetime being a religious historian, it is all too obvious to me that the religious beliefs of most people are thinly veiled rationalizations for their conduct rather than a transforming influence upon it. While I see that in others, I fear it in me.
The challenge of the Christian calling, as I have frequently written before, is to be in but not “of the world.” Jesus did not ask His disciples to withdraw into asceticism; rather, He sent them to be a leavening influence in a wicked world. The result of this calling can work revolutionary experiences in individual lives.
Yet, in the midst of revolutionary life experiences, Christians are not revolutionaries. ... Christians are meek and peaceful citizens and inoffensive and helpful neighbors. But there must be a prophetic potential in our lives. We are subject to a “higher law.” We must be prepared to stand against the crowd, to be viewed as odd, to be characterized as threats to society.
The extent of a Christian’s alienation from society has often led to doctrinal debates among believers. Can Christians serve in the military and fight in wars? Can Christians pledge allegiance to the flag and take oaths? Those are legitimate and important questions… [as is] “Exactly how is it that I am to differ from those around me?” If the essence of my eccentricity is not in dress, or food, or the daily duties of citizens, then how is it that I am at odds with my culture? The answers have to do with thoughts and actions.
If we are to lift ourselves above the world, we will first have to purify our minds…to think about things that are pure and holy, to focus our minds on spiritual values rather than worldly possessions, and to learn to think wholesome thoughts in the midst of life’s trials and tribulations.
If your mind is filled with such righteous thoughts, your actions will reflect that… [as will] the language, behavior, and worship that flows from the otherworldly mind of the Christian. It is those actions that make us identifiable—that put us at odds with our culture.
I have returned to this theme both because of its repetition in the Scriptures and because of a brooding fear that I fall into the same ease in my culture as those around me. Few themes in the Bible recur more often than the plaintive plea to “come out from among them, and be ye separate” (II Corinthians 6:17).
And few things trouble me more than seeing churches filled with good people being sucked into the maelstrom of a decadent culture—listening to the world, reading its books, watching its television, and swallowing its values. They go to church, and I see them there. But their message has become “Christ and Culture.”
In the gravest terms, I tell you, that cannot be. Let us purify our minds and walk circumspectly.
