The concept of culture brings many ideas to the forefront of the mind. Some might think of examples of specific heritages or people groups displayed through foods or styles. In this sense, people travel the world to experience other types of cultures. There are aspects to culture, in addition to these tangible expressions of the culture, which reflect a dominant worldview of a people group. "No man can live without a worldview," though this worldview is hardly ever brought into critical focus. "For most of us, the framework of meaning by which we navigate life exist 'prereflectively,' prior to conscious awareness."
Culture serves as both a description of this dominant worldview, and a prescription for what worldview will be accepted if logically consistent with culture norms. Through his studies, cultural critique and sociologist James Hunter has concluded that "everything hinges on how we understand the nature of culture."
After a short period of reflection, we realize that “culture is in fact a much more complicated phenomenon than we normally imagine." The essence of it “is found in the hearts and minds of individuals - in what we typically called 'values.'" We express ourselves through forms of entertainment in light of these values, and we create political systems and laws to enforce judgment when these values are compromised. "The government is inextricable from the work of culture." This essay will serve to examine culture from a political and entertainment standpoint, as well as look at the Christian call and the church today.
Politics
"The work of world-making and world-changing are, by and large, the work of elites.". This concept is reflective of a top down approach to changing a culture. This approach implies that regardless of numbers, if social reformers are not in the appropriate institution they will not make the difference they are seeking. One influential appropriate institution, where most of the elites flock, is in fact the political realm.
"The most visible way American Christianity influences the larger society today is in the political realm." However, I would argue that by focusing on influence through politics only, we are exercising a way of outsourcing a call given to us in the gospel. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Believers think of themselves as individuals first, Americans second, and Christians third. Until that prioritization is rearranged, the Church will continue to lose influence, and biblical principles will represent simply one more option amount the numerous worldviews that Americans may choose from.
I am not arguing that we forfeit the political realm to the secularists. The values, for which the government exercises its judgment, have their roots in the fact that human beings created in the image of God. When this is not the motivation for coercion, the political realm becomes nothing more than a power struggle. "One of the most startling commentaries on this century is the fact that millions more have died at the hands of their own governments than in wars with other nations—all to preserve someone's power." Therefore we need Christian influence in politics.
[C]hristians have an important role to play in the organization that most people think of as 'government' – the state. Indeed, believers have a Biblical obligation to be involved in civic affairs, since that sphere, no less than the private realm, is subject to God's rule and requires a generous dose of Christian 'salt.'
There needs to be a fine balance between engaging with the political realm all the while remaining faithful to our daily witness with those who are not among the elite.
In addition to the world of the elites, we also need to examine everyday culture being formed through the world of what lay people experience daily: entertainment.
Entertainment
I am using the term entertainment to encompass both technologies such as social media, television, and forms of music, and art forms such as paintings and films. All popular mediums have a way of not only interpreting the culture of the day, but also of enforcing the culture of the day. The medium is the message.
"We have created the illusion that we are on our own because technology has empower us to be self-sufficient." The mediation that occurs when technology is used, only feeds this phenomenal concept of being along together. We walk around with our ear buds in, we interact through social media, and we stream our lectures and sermons, all the while never interacting face to face with people, whether they are artists, teachers, or peers. This runs counter to what the Bible teaches about living in community. First and foremost our relationship with Jesus is to be mediated by no one or no thing, but then we are also called to engage in the church body, discipleship, and our immediate community.
Not only do certain media serve to disconnect us with external relationships, but they can disconnect us from our internal self. When our communications become only one way, we are able to control what we are exposed to. We do not have to deal with conflict, suffering, vulnerability; we can escape.
"It seems we bow in submission to Aphrodite every time we turn on the television or read an advertisement or listen to music." Entertainment can be worshipped as a coping mechanism and sort of savior from hurt and discomfort. However, when it is engaged in this way it becomes an idol. God pursues, exposes, and saves. Entertainment involves no relation, it covers up and disguises, and inhibits any spiritual growth by distraction.
In light of the intrinsic attributes of entertainment that run counter to the Bible, why is it that so many churches compromise in this area? They use worldly methods out of a desire to become relevant, all the while forgetting that the church should be naturally attractive to those who are ready for its message. In addition, the church today, as influenced by a culture of tolerance and acceptance, does not know how to rest content appearing as different. Instead, methods are taken to blend with the world, which necessarily compromise the intrinsic exclusivity and offensive nature of the message of the cross.
The church today
"Apart from outright illegal jobs like prostitution and drug-dealing, the church today seldom discourages any career path considered by young people or undertaken by adults." This is entirely appropriate; however, I would argue this is not done all the time by every church. In fact, sometimes it is done within a false dichotomy of viewing jobs that are not blatantly religious as either wrong or neutral.
"God's intention [is] that human beings both develop and cherish the world in ways that meet human needs and bring glory and honor to him." Who are we to say that this can only be done through formal religious jobs?
In fact, “Christianity is the only religion that allows for the full expression of the personality of the human being.” in all fields that are not intrinsically immoral. We are called to apply “human touch to the natural world through the inspiration of God,” Ibid. in all disciplines and vocations.
We must engage in our fields in a way which is consistent and coheres with our Christian worldview, otherwise we imply either that there are certain areas of life which do not fall under the lordship of Christ, or that consistency and coherence are optional criteria for a worldview. The Bible should be "used as the foundation and the filter" for examining our fields and our engagement in them, in order to conclude what is appropriate in order for a Christian to remain consistent with their worldview.
Conclusion
In the second century "Christian intellectuals, not only understood their own theological and biblical tradition, but also had knowledge of the leading ideas of culture." We should today strive to also mimic the men of Issachar who understood their times (1 Chronicles 12:32), in order to faithfully interpret and strategically witness to our culture.
"Evangelism is not only a means of saving souls but of transforming individuals and, in a roundabout way, the culture." We must recognize that the conflict underlying which culture is dominant, is between competing worldviews: naturalism and theism, and when we combat the naturalist worldview, the message of the gospel will be properly understood and only then will we see cultural change.
As individuals in the church, we must remember that in addition to being saved from death, we are saved to a life of holiness and are therefore to never blend with the world. In an effort to not blend, we must also not escape from the culture in which we find ourselves.
Church choir voices echo through the air as people sing the hymn line “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” How inappropriate is it, that out of a desire to worship our creator we speak of His good creation fading away? We tend to forget, that there will be traces of this earth in the new, and we tend to not acknowledge his general goodness in the world today.
We are called to cultivate (present tense) the world in which we live. This is done through an effort to interpret, engage with, and transform our culture.
