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.

Christians, Culture, and Moral Conduct

There is no New Testament mandate directing the Christian community to shape the moral values of a godless culture apart from the actions of living and preaching the gospel visibly and flagrantly. Modern western Christianity is predominantly a naturalistic, rationalistic, moralistic system utterly oblivious of the supernatural basis that defined ancient biblical Christianity, and for centuries, historic orthodox Christianity. The modern western religion that has come to be known as Christianity is little more than naturalistic, rationalistic deism. The most basic components for how Christians know divine truth, specifically, biblical faith coupled with Spirit illumination, are utterly foreign concepts to most people in modern culture who refer to themselves as Christians. The biblical teaching that our basis for truly knowing God is beyond the veil of human reason sounds strange to most professing Christians in western culture, and I would suppose, to most other cultures as well. This naturalistic, rationalistic orientation of the Christian religion has instinctively led many professing churches to consider the mission of the Christian church from more of a social, moral, and temporal emphasis.

Recently I heard a rant over the new trend to legalize polygamy. Al Mohler rightly pointed out that those gay marriage proponents that called the polygamy argument the product of extremists were dead wrong. That being the case I want to bring you back what I believe is the appropriate attitude regarding ungodly behavior and values in the culture.

First, in his prologue, John is very lucid in his description of how an ungodly culture, living under the curse of God and abiding in His wrath responds to true light: “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (Jn. 1:5) It is thought that John is alluding to Isa. 9:2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.” Similarly, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the forces of light and darkness were engaged in mortal combat, but light was predestined to triumph.^[1] 

Light and darkness are no equally matched duality, but in the titanic battle between Jesus and Satan, Jesus, “the light,” emerges as the overwhelming victor.^[2] 

There is no question that darkness and light occupy the same culture in many of the world’s cultures. Those in whom Christ dwells, the Christian community, are the children of the light. The unbelievers that reject Christ are referred as children of darkness.

The second point is that a little later in his gospel, John informs us why ungodly cultures prefer the darkness rather than the light: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.^[3] 

The world not only loves the darkness, but they also are fearful that their evil deeds will be exposed if they step into the light. Sinners love their sin. If you thought gay marriage, and polygamy and abortion are human rights issues, you could not be more mistaken. These are all sin issues, issues of a very dark, godless culture that seeks to have things its own way. No amount of social or political activism will change the darkness in our culture to light.

What then is the Christian to do? Are we to wrangle over sinners living sinful lifestyles? Our response should not be one of simple outrage over the attack on the family, or even on the lives of innocent unborn babies. Our shock should be the utter contempt in which God is held. But that shock should be an expected shock if you will pardon the oxymoron. Paul had an emotional response to the idolatry he witnessed in Athens, but it was predictable. What should we do? How should we think about this when we are alone and contemplating the evil around us? What should we do about it? Should we talk about it? Should we vote about it? Should we seek to force the godless culture to live by godly values if at all possible? What exactly is the Christian community to do about the godless cultures in which they find themselves?

Many modern politically active Christians claim that political activism is the equivalent of letting our "light shine" and of being "the salt of the earth." Others believe these good works are the outward behaviors of righteous living. I am convinced by Jesus' reference to the Law that He was alluding to righteous living. Jesus says we are the salt of the earth. Scholars are not sure what Jesus was referring to specifically when He called us the salt of the earth. He could have been alluding to rock formations that contain sodium chloride. These were used to preserve meat. He could have been alluding to the salt collected from the Dead Sea through the process of evaporation. He could have had in mind the salt blocks used by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens. “Jesus may be citing a well-known proverbial saying. When rebuffing a trick question, Rabbi Joshua ben Haniniah (c. a.d. 90) apparently alludes to a proverbial saying when he asks, “Can salt lose its flavor?” The context of the saying implies that it is impossible for salt to lose its flavor, because he parallels the saying by asking, “Does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” (b. Bek. 8b). Sterile mules can no more bear young than can salt lose its flavor.”^[4]

In other words, one cannot be light and darkness both at the same time and in the same place. This would point to the fact that the disciples of Christ could not possess the qualities of a disciple and not possess the qualities of a disciple at the same time. The fruit of the Spirit in Gal. 5 comes to mind.

Peter tells his audience to “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.” (1 Peter 2:12) Paul emphasizes this sort of conduct in 2Cor. 8:21, “for we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”^[5] 

In a culture obsessed with shame and honor, Greco-Roman writers were quick to emphasize that leaders and other beneficiaries of the public trust must be open and of irreproachable moral credentials. Judaism also stressed that charity collectors must act irreproachably to prevent even false accusations.^[6] 

Outward moral reform was clearly not in view in the gospels, nor is it found anywhere in the writings or rhetoric of the NT sermons. Paul tells us to “prove ourselves blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of an immoral generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” (Phil. 2:15)

The biblical mandate for the Christian is to live a certain lifestyle before the world, not necessarily to tell a godless culture that it must comply with Christian principles or else. The Christian message is the gospel of repentance. The “or else” has nothing to do with temporal punishment and everything to do with the coming wrath of a Holy God. We will continue to write about the wrong-headed thinking of so many Christians as it relates to how we are to think about and interact with the respective godless cultures in which we find ourselves. The goal of the Christian life is to honor God before men. That means being the light and the salt He has called us to be and unflinchingly proclaiming the gospel of Christ, making disciples everywhere we go!

In summary then, Jesus and His apostles left us with clear instructions to live a life that was above reproach, to let our light shine, to hold to a standard of ethics that was of immeasurable worth. He commanded us to proclaim that gospel without apology. He instructed us to walk in love toward one another and those without, to be at peace with each other, and to walk in unity. He even commanded us, as part of our living in this life, to be continuously making disciples. But not one time did Jesus ever suggest, imply, infer, or even hint that our aim, our goal as a community was to impact the morality of the culture in which we find ourselves. The idea that Christianity has a divine imperative to shape the moral values of a godless and immoral culture in any way other than through godly living and preaching the gospel is a modern impulse derived from a rationalistic and naturalistic view of the Christian religion.

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^[1] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Jn 1:5.

^[2] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: John, Acts., vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 7.

^[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Jn 3:19.

^[4] Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 36.

^[5] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 8:21.

^[6] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 2 Co 8:20–21.