We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
What, if anything at all, is the most prevalent cultural enemy to the Christian faith?
7 comments:
Greg,
This is a hard question. Cultures, of course, are always in flux and situated within a particular time and geographical locale (though, regarding the latter, less and less so). I speak as an American, but I believe the most prevalent enemy of Christianity in the West is not an outright hostility towards the faith, but the persistent, steady, yet subtle, voices of our culture that would seek to lure our attention away from following the Crucified and Risen One (to use your terminology). We don’t, here in the United States, live in a period of extensive persecution, but this doesn’t imply that there are not powerful cultural forces at work that desire to overturn the truth of the gospel and to prevent Christian disciples from living as fully committed followers of Christ. Just one example, from an epistemological angle, is the underlying pressure to avoid being overly committed to any particular truth claim (Whose to adjudicate whether it is actually true?); to speak as if one holds the truth, is often perceived as arrogant or conceited. Human beings, however, must always work from the basis of certain core beliefs, whether they be reasoned commitments or slavishly adopted beliefs handed to them by the larger culture. In other words, we will always be committed, in our core beliefs, to something. I’m reminded here of Vanhoozer’s comment in Drama of Doctrine: “Nature and society alike abhor a vacuum, and there are many ideologies and agendas waiting to rush and fill the hearts and minds of the uncommitted.”
Rhett
Rhett,
Thanks. Really helpful insights. There seem to be a variety of angles that drive us to the illusion that we have no commitments. Seems as if we're not being out rightly overpowered, but rather lulled into modes of shrugging our shoulders and returning to our iphones.
Rhett,
Check out the post on Wed. April 10, which may be relevant to your comment.
THAT is a great question: one that will generate some diverse answers based upon one's perspective. I am a US citizen and resident. What I see is a church that has for years sought to obtain political strength so as to further its prevailing agenda (I am beginning to hate that word) and protect itself from persecution. It has opted to worship political power rather than to serve Christ, claiming its political focus to be service to Christ.
I suppose it is one more appropriate moment to quote Walt Kelly's Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Carter,
Thanks. The political lure is enticing many, while serving Christ is being distorted beyond recognition. We're all too good at shooting each other and ourselves in the foot.
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