The Christian and Culture
According to a recent study by the Barna Research Team, most U.S. Christians think that they are losing influence in America and sense tension between their beliefs and the mainstream culture. Two-thirds of those surveyed indicated conflict between their worldviews and mainstream America’s. This study reveals the need to obtain a biblical view of culture to know how to think and live rightly.
Culture Defined
When God created mankind, He also created culture (Gen. 1:26-28). These two entities are inseparable. As a result of the tower of Babel, God allowed the development and spread of cultural diversity as mankind scattered throughout the earth (Gen. 11:8-9). Also, culture is a set of practices and beliefs that identify a group of people. Cultural anthropologist Raymond Williams gives three general definitions of culture, which include “intellectual/spiritual/aesthetic development,” “a particular way of life,” and “artistic activity.” Thus, culture gives identity to individuals, families, organizations, regions, and nations.
Sub-Cultures
Historically and currently, cultural anthropologists identify three main sub-cultures:
folk, high, and popular/pop. Folk culture displays the culture of the common people of the industrial working class. In contrast to folk culture, renowned scholar Roger Scruton comments that high culture “contains knowledge which is far more significant than anything that can be absorbed from the channels of popular communication.” According to educators, popular culture involves life’s distractions, activities, and foci. Cultural anthropologists consider pop culture inferior to high culture, well-liked and accepted by many people, and hopelessly commercial.
Cultural Relativism
The philosophy of cultural relativism is prevalent in pop culture today. According to the Sociology Dictionary, cultural relativism is the view that “culture can only be understood and judged by the standards, behaviors, norms, and values within the culture and not by anything outside.” In “The Closing of the American Mind,” Allan Bloom suggests that cultural relativism promotes openness and undermines belief. According to this thinking, those who uphold the view of an ideal, biblically based culture are dangerous.
Further, a conservative cultural anthropologist, Robert Knight suggests, “Relativistic thinking has penetrated many Western institutions and shattered norms, nowhere more than in popular culture.” As a result, standards are attacked and are viewed as a threat to the pseudo-freedom of relativism. Christian musicologist Donald Hustad contends “that such a concept is at odds with what we learn from Scripture and from church history; for this reason, I maintain that today’s relativistic culture is a ‘strange land’ to the church and is unfriendly to its best interests.”
The Bible and Popular Culture
God’s Word instructs us not to love the world nor desire its sinful attractions
(1 Jn. 2:15-17). “Kosmos” (world) refers to an entity that is hostile against God and ruled by Satan (Eph. 2:2). This includes its ideologies, such as globalization and cultural relativism, as well as its way of life. Further, Christ states believers are not of the world, and He prays that they will keep themselves from the world’s evil (Jn. 17:15-16). Perhaps “the present evil world” (Gal. 1:4), the evil part of culture, applies to the popular culture of our day, which seems to display characteristics antithetical to God and Christianity. These include virtue signaling (to express one’s view for praise), cancel culture (the ostracization of those who do not hold socially accepted views), and political correctness.
“Gray Areas” and Conscience
God desires that we maintain a clear conscience with Him and others (Acts 24:16). This includes the “gray areas” representing lifestyle choices, such as dress and entertainment, in which believers may hold differing views considering varying traditions and cultures. In Rom. 14:1-23, Paul gives an example of a situation concerning conscience that can be viewed as a controversy or “gray area” during his ministry. The believers needed to decide whether they should eat meat or just vegetables and observe some special days, possibly referring to the ceremonial feast days (Rom. 1:1-6). Paul reminds the believers at Rome not to judge each other on these differences since they will give an account to God, the Judge of man’s hearts and actions (Rom. 1:7-12). This implies that each believer’s standards and convictions over such matters are between his conscience and the Lord. Paul urged those who found eating meat permissible to exercise their Christian liberty by not consuming food that another believer may deem unclean to not be a stumbling block or an offense (Rom. 1:13-14, 21).
A Matter of Faith
In cultural choices, God desires believers to display sensitivity and understanding toward others (Rom. 14:15). We should make decisions that encourage peace and edification (building up) while considering the conscience of others, even if an action may be deemed permissible (Rom. 14:16-20). Paul declares that these decisions are a matter of faith (Rom. 14:22). This indicates that believers should not participate in an act that brings doubt and harm to their conscience (Rom. 14:23).
The Basis of Cultural Choices
While holding differing positions, Christians should esteem others better than themselves while displaying a gracious spirit (Eph. 4:32; Phil. 2:3). This includes controversial or “gray area” choices. Regardless of culture and time, all cultural and lifestyle decisions and how they are handled should always glorify God. This is the culture that should identify us as children of God. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).
Erik D. Hanson has served in pastoral ministry in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for fifteen years.