Secularism and American Culture

1.  A Secular Culture

A.     Secular Defined

Before commenting on how Christians in western and American culture think about their culture, I think want to offer up some thoughts about a word we here used often to describe our culture: secular. We here from many Christian leaders today that American culture is becoming increasingly secular. They talk about the secularization of American culture that, according to how they understand American culture, has taken place over the years. To be sure, it would be silly of me to claim that America is not experiencing some sort of basic shift in terms of its culture. She certainly is undergoing a radical shift and she is doing so at break-neck speed. The hostility toward Christianity is ramping up much faster than most Christian leaders expected. But I want to point out that this is not anything that Christians should concern themselves with. To set this in its proper context I want to offer up a couple of definitions of ­secular. One definition says that the doctrine of secularism is that doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations. Well, if that is how we define secularism, then why should we care if our culture is becoming more secular? Iran is not a secular nation. Does that mean Christians should be encouraged by Iran’s culture? I don’t think we can answer that question with a positive affirmation. Another definition says that secularism is to be devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual. Essentially, to be secular is to be unconcerned with religion, that is, without any religious devotion. American culture then, by this definition has been and still is very devoted to its own brands of the Christian religion and they are many. But as Christians, if we look at American culture correctly, what we see is a culture that is full of idolatry, greed, and lust. American is about absolute autonomy, making a god into their own image for self-righteous reasons, the pursuit of the American dream, and sex. Is American becoming more secular? Sure she is. People are less interested in religion than they used to be. So what. What is better? Idolatry in religion or idolatry apart from religion?

America was never a Christian nation. Modern America, since the pilgrims landed, has had a percentage of true Christians, a percentage of false Christians, and a percentage of neither. But American was not founded upon the revelation of Christian Scripture. She may have borrowed points here and there, but she has never been a nation truly under God, submitting to God through faith in Christ. To think otherwise is sheer fantasy. It is here that Christians must begin if they wish to think rightly, to think accurately, to think biblically about the nation in which they find themselves.

B.     Culture Defined

Culture can be defined as a particular society at a particular time and place. Culture can also be defined as the attitudes and behaviors that are characteristic of a group of people. It is true that American culture in this place and time is significantly different from American culture in previous times. Religious freedom was once an idea in American culture that seemed impervious to change, redefinition, and even rejection. But here we are, in a culture now that is on the precipice of changing several basic ideas that served as the anchor and ground of the American experiment. The right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion are all in serious jeopardy, just to name a few. I admit that it is undeniably true that American culture is changing and depending on how one defines secularism, she is become more secular. What I don’t buy into is the alarmist response. I reject the concept that it really, really matters that America should not become more secular. I reject it because she is not becoming any more idolatrous than she has been for centuries now. And I think that Christians ought to be concerned, not with the shallow religious hypocrisy that exists in their culture as much as they should be concerned about the pure idolatry they witness. American culture has never been predominantly Christian, at least not since the very beginning if in fact she really was then. Its time for Christians to let go of that myth. American culture celebrates sexual promiscuity openly now while in the past she practiced it in private. She honors the greedy openly now and she has been doing so for a very long time. American culture openly murders millions of babies in the name of women’s health and women’s rights. American culture perverts biblical Christianity, rewriting Scripture through a hermeneutic that allows them to create the sort of Jesus and the kind of Christianity they can tolerate and embrace. American culture is an idolatrous culture, filled with every kind of greed, lust, lie, and disgusting vice imaginable. And what is more, many American Christians vary from being indifferent to accepting, participating, endorsing, and even celebrating this rebellious culture.

2.  Christian Community

A.     Christian Defined

So what then does it mean to be a Christian? If one wants to defend the idea that American either is or was a Christian nation, they will have to define for us what it means to be Christian. To be a Christian is to be a disciple. Jesus said “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matt. 16:24) Self-denial is at the heartbeat of what it is to be a Christian. Self-denial is also the antithesis of Americanism. American is all about elevating the self, preserving the individual. Christianity is all about the other, all about denying the self. In America, we have men taking other men sexually, calling it love, and then demanding that Christianity accommodate their selfish and perverse lusts. And we have pseudo Christians not only tolerating and celebrating these activities, but demanding that Christianity be reinterpreted to accommodate this disgusting behavior. Christians are children of God while pagans are children of the devil. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1 Jn. 3:10) Christian’s live a life that is defined primarily by practicing righteous deeds, honoring God’s law, albeit imperfectly. Pagans live a life that is defined primarily by debaucheries, rebellious, and selfish living. Christians love God while pagans do not. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn. 14:15) Jesus was clear – if you love me, you will keep my commandments. But we have arrogant American Christians turning this upside down on its head and then having the unmitigated gall to tell us that we are the arrogant ones. It is simple: Christians love God. Those who love God will keep God’s commandments. Those who pervert God’s commandments in order to avoid keeping them are clearly not Christians because they do not love God. And if one does not love God, they hate God.Christianity then is defined, not be modern, western, American culture. It is defined by the divine revelation of Christian Scripture once and for all to ancient Jews living in Palestine who were regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit and who were the very first Christians. Americans, with all their money, their technology, and the accomplishments are utterly unable to change what it means to be a Christian.

B.     Community Defined

The Christian Church is the body of Christ. The local assembly of the Christian Church should be viewed, if it is viewed rightly, as Christians in community with one another. We are a distinct culture within a culture. We are gathered by God into Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Christians are in a very special group, a family. But this family is bound together by something much stronger than blood. Jesus’ words about the relativization of natural kinship ties and the family created by commitment to a common way of life have multiple resonances and strong precedents throughout the Greco-Roman world. [deSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity] Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. (Heb. 3:12-14) We are part of one flock, members of one body, a people called out for one purpose, a peculiar people, a chosen generation. The Christian community has an obligation to remove from its midst those who reject Christian values & morality as well as those who reject basic Christian dogma. We are bound together in the unity of the Spirit of TRUTH, not error, and we share in common a set of values that transcend the individual. We share in the common nature of God’s own Son who is Himself the one true expression of holiness and truth.

The Constantinian Christian

For a very long time now, American Christians have conflated biblical Christianity with a sort of American Nationalism integrated thoroughly with a Christianity that filters nearly every Christian doctrine through a distinctly American mindset. The American Christian begins, not with ancient biblical Christianity. Instead, it begins with American nationalism, American ideas, American principles and it proceeds to impose those ideas onto Christianity. The modern Christian in America is completely immersed in the constantinian shift. We do not see our nation as something distinct from our Christianity. We see the two as inseparable. That is how we view both our religious commitments and our commitments to this country. I wonder what Paul would have done if he had been told that he had to swear allegiance to Rome? The situation is so misunderstood in American culture that it has led to Christians confusing social and political activism with things like loving their neighbor. In some cases, Christians will accuse you of sin if you don’t vote along a particular party line. I used to be there myself. I know not only from reading what others are writing but from being one of the wrong-headed thinkers myself. The more I read Scripture outside the context that is American culture, the more I have realized that Christianity and America have really nothing to do with one another. That is to say that being a Christian says nothing about your being an American and being an American says nothing about you’re being a Christian.

I want to point out several myths that you must recognize if you are to ever break from the grip the constantinian shift has upon your worldview, and specifically, upon your Christian outlook.

American Christians suffer from the delusion that America either is or once was a Christian nation. America has never been a Christian nation. It is true that America was founded upon principles that appear similar to those in Christianity. But lets make sure we understand why that is. First of all, there is no country on earth that does not share at least some morality with Christian morality. The reason for this is because Christian morality is anchored in the nature of God. Humans are created in the image of God. We are born with certain innate attitudes about morality that are attributed to being created in the image of God. However, as do all unbelievers, Americans distort and pervert that morality to one degree or another. Perhaps, like the Jews, American Christians have sought to attain righteousness through legalistic rule-keeping as it relates to these moral principles. We have rules against movies, music, alcohol, etc. American Christianity has lots of rules. And those rules have often been used in the more legalistic areas of Christianity to beat and intimidate people into submission. But that sort of Christianity has always been an external wink and nod to Christ. It has nothing to say about the power of the gospel to change a sinner’s heart of stone.

This is why we ought to land somewhere between laughter and anger when someone quotes II Chronicles 7:14 as if God is speaking directly to America. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this text quoted and applied to America by well-intentioned American Christians. The ignorance in these areas is pronounced and depressing. The text was addressed to ancient Israel. It is not a general promise to all the nations on the earth. It is address to “My people who are called by my name.” Only one nation was called by God’s name and that was ancient Israel. America is not and has never been a Christian nation.

The second myth is that America is the greatest country on earth. We really are proud Americans, aren’t we! We embrace our country and proudly talk about how we will defend it to the death and stand up for her as proudly as we possibly can. From a Christian perspective, America is not the greatest country of earth. America is a country that has probably had more exposure to Jesus Christ and the good news that any other single nation on earth. And what has she done with Christ? She has used Him to exploit His followers. Should Christians think of their pagan nation as the greatest nation on earth? America may be a good country relatively speaking to other countries in the world, but make no mistake about it, she is made up of mostly totally depraved God-haters. Her leaders in Washington are almost to a person, if not to a person, totally depraved God haters. The Supreme court is constituted by mostly if not entirely totally depraved God haters. She murders innocent unborn children and cloaks it in women’s health issues. She talks about marriage equality when what she really means is the celebration of some of the most unnatural and perverse sexual behavior invented by fallen sinful God haters. America is not the greatest country on earth.

Another myth is the notion that Christian love equals political or social activism. Some Christians think that the way we love our culture is to influence it morally and ethically. They wrongly think that if we can just get the culture to return to some of those external and apparent Christian principles that this is how we love our culture. I have news for you. Even if you were able to get America to adopt every commandment and conduct itself in a manner identical to how the Christian community conducts itself, it is still a dressed up, eternal, legalistic embrace of morality for all the wrong reasons. The only thing you would accomplish is the creation of another 300 million self-righteous hypocrites who think that God looks down on their country with favor because they don’t watch porn, kill babies, cheat on their wives or their taxes, and they are in church and contributing to the needs of the institution each and every week. What a wonderfully moral culture.

Putting the family first and maintaining the structure of the family is not the gospel and it is not the highest calling of the Christian. Eliminating the murder of innocent people to include children is not the calling at the Christian, not even a little. Eliminating slavery was never something that Christians were called to do. Stopping the sex trade is not something the Church is called to. Crushing the porn industry and making porn illegal is not the high calling of the Church. We do eliminate abortion in our midst. In the Christian community. We eradicate sexual promiscuity in the Christian community. We put an end murder, perverse sex, illicit divorce, the sex trade, and all such things within our Christian community. How do we do that? We preach the gospel, the good news, God regenerates those whom He has called to Himself, and through the power of the Holy Spirit as He applies the Word of God to the mind, we are slowly transformed into those having the mind of Christ. We start to look and sound like Jesus more and more each day!

Christians in America are not called to change the culture from a godless culture with more and more godless principles into a culture that is respectful and receptive to more and more Christian principles. We are called to live and preach the gospel to this culture. We are called to pray for this culture. We have been chosen by God to call American culture to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.