I read an article a couple weeks ago that has to do with my last week's post on Scripture as the Christian's normalizing media. It's a great example of why Christians must be rooted in something much bigger than current cultural norms.
During the Clinton era, many folks (especially Christians) were deeply disturbed by the Monica Lewinsky affair. However, there were plenty who felt like it was not that big a deal. At least not a big enough deal to kick the guy out of office. The economy was soaring, after all.
Let's say, strictly hypothetically, that back in the 1950's a tape surfaced of Dwight Eisenhower repeatedly using the "n" word to describe black folks. This would have probably upset many people. But in all probability, it would not have resulted in his dismissal from office. It wasn't all that unusual or abnormal for the times. Alas, even for many who called themselves Christians.
Now let's switch the actions, but keep the presidents the same. Eisenhower has the affair in 1955 and Clinton uses the "n" word in 1996. Chances are that the ramifications are quite different for both men.
This duplicity is why we must have our norms anchored in something much greater than the current cultural trends. Both actions are deplorable. And if we do not have something outside of ourselves to help see things as they really are, we will be too deep in the weeds of the culture to be able to discern what is good and what is completely jacked up.
We must be ready and able to winsomly and/or prophetically speak into a culture that will not always understand--even and especially our own Christian culture that often doesn't look much different. The call to desegregation in the 1950's sounded strange to many Christians. There are issues now in the broader culture that the church needs to lead in addressing. And we could be, if we would read our Scriptures as our normalizing media--both when it kicks us in the butt and when it comforts and soothes.
1 comment:
hey not only does culture normalize us but as a church we look to each other to normalize the way we live our lives. We look at other christians to define the way we live and to decide if we are ok in our walk with the Lord and our standards are continuing to drop. For example, we have started to think of a good christian as someone who has a quiet time for 20 minutes a day even though scripture says to meditate on the word of God day and night, etc... Here is a good challenging book that my friend told me about that talks about this:
the irresistible revolution by shane claiborne
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