A reflection on cultural engagement and spiritual purity

The 68^th Grammy Awards were on television last night, an event intended to recognize outstanding achievements in music. My wife and I watched for a few minutes, but the parade of celebrities wearing very little clothing and taking turns disparaging the government soon became wearisome. (Though I must add that Jelly Roll’s acceptance speech, in which he glorified God and emphatically called on the audience to trust in Christ, was a very notable exception.)

In addition, I have heard almost none of the music being recognized and know very little about the performers apart from the headlines they occasionally generate. It was the same with the Emmys last fall, and I assume it will be the same with the Oscars in a few weeks. Thus far, I have seen exactly one of the movies nominated for best picture and am not sure I’ll see any of the others.

This is an odd confession for someone whose calling is to be a cultural apologist. How can I respond to the culture if I’m not more engaged in it?

It’s a question that concerns not just people like me but also people like you. And it has implications far beyond annual awards shows.

Living in a cave atop a tower

With regard to cultural engagement, a spectrum of options presents itself.

On one extreme, we can emulate the desert monastics who retreated from society into lives of complete isolation. They did so in part to prevent being “contaminated” by their fallen society, but also to intercede for that society.

On a study tour of Greece and Turkey some years ago, our group drove through a region noted for its “fairy chimneys.” These are rock formations characterized by tall pillars rising from the valley below. Many are pockmarked with caves. And some of these caves are inhabited by monks who live there for years, some for decades.

These monks are fed and otherwise supported by nearby monastic communities. Some of them will go many years with no contact with the larger world.

I asked our tour guide how Christian ministers could feel they were serving God in such isolation from the world we are called to influence for Christ. We are the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), I noted, but salt has no effect if it remains in the salt shaker.

He explained that these monks dedicate their lives not to escaping the world but to praying for it. They feel that their intercession is a greater service to the global population and its challenges than anything else they could do.

If we believe in the merits of intercessory prayer (cf. Mark 11:24), we should consider the merits of their position.

What percentage of Christians possess a biblical worldview?

On the other extreme, we can engage so fully in our fallen culture that there is little distinction between us and those who do not claim to follow Jesus.

Only 30 percent of self-identified Christians attend church services each week. According to Barna studies, only 9 percent of us possess a biblical worldview. On a variety of issues, many Christians and even many evangelicals are indistinguishable from the larger culture in their beliefs and practices.

You and I likely fall somewhere in the middle. We don’t live in caves, we attend church with some regularity, and we don’t participate in obviously sinful activities such as the near-nudity on the Grammys stage or the profanity of many of the lyrics performed and speeches delivered.

But if you’re not locked into an extreme on a cultural spectrum, you must decide where you should be on each issue as it arises. And you can expect some who differ with you to take exception to your decisions.

Quoting David Brooks

For example, I regularly reference writers with whom I disagree on significant issues. My extended quote from the now-former New York Times columnist David Brooks in today’s Daily Article is an example. I agreed with some of what he wrote in his article so fully that I wanted to reproduce and respond to it. I disagreed strongly with some other parts of the same article, however, just as I sometimes disagree strongly with other positions Mr. Brooks takes on political and cultural issues.

I regularly cite media platforms such as the Times, even though I regularly disagree with their typical editorial slant. On occasion, readers will take exception to such references, fearing that I am endorsing these platforms by citing them.

If, however, I am only to cite platforms with which I completely and consistently agree, I will have no platforms to cite. I don’t even agree with some of my own sermons and writings from years ago. And I acknowledge the fact that I am no more inerrant today than I was then.

It’s virtually impossible to participate in any collective activity or organization without risking an apparent endorsement that might offend someone. For example, we have dozens of staff members at Denison Ministries. Each of them could be seen as endorsing what I am writing right now by virtue of their decision to work with us. Because my wife and I attended church yesterday, someone could accuse us of endorsing anything our pastor says or does today.

All of which makes a cave atop a tower understandably appealing.

“Speaking the truth in love”

As always, Jesus is our model.

He engaged with his fallen culture so fully that critics called him “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Matthew 11:19). He did so in the knowledge that we must take the gospel to the lost just as salt must contact that which it is to influence.

Yet our Lord refused to participate personally in the sins of his society (Hebrews 4:15). He was in the world but not of it. As the author and professor John A. Shedd noted, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

When a ship is in the water, all is well. When water is in the ship, all can be lost.

Now Jesus is ready by his Spirit to lead us to those parts of the culture we are to engage by “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Your call may not be mine, just as mine may not be yours. But we are both called to use our influence for the advancement of God’s kingdom in our world (Matthew 6:33).

As the Spirit leads us, he will equip and empower us. He will give us the discernment to engage with sinners without committing their sins (cf. Hebrews 5:14). He will speak to us and through us (cf. Matthew 10:20).

And he will enable us to love others as he loves us.

“Bad ideas have victims”

My wife often reminds those she teaches that lost people act like lost people. As Paul noted, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

This is because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). As my friend John Stonestreet says, “Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims.”

This means that you and I are not cultural warriors doing battle with those who disagree with us, but cultural missionaries called to share the love we have experienced in Christ.

Our enemy is Satan, not those he has deceived. Our power is the Spirit who always defeats our enemy. And our hope is as secure as the promises of God.

You are alive when and where you are because you can make a kingdom difference when and where you are. Charles Spurgeon was right:

“It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.”

What part of this “business” is yours today?

 

Denison Forum