Cultura

Cultural Corrosion and Consecration

Roy Atwood

any non-Christian thinkers have observed the deterioration of American culture, but few have traced the problem to its source. The dissolution of American culture began when the church lost its theological bearings and, with it, its cultural bearings, by splitting faith and works, religion and culture. The Scriptures, of course, describe religion and culture as a unity, distinct, but inseparable: saving faith in Christ is the unmerited and unaided work of the Holy Spirit alone; good works are the gracious fruit and evidence of a true and living faith. Works cannot save, but faith without works is dead (James 2:1426). Christians are, writes Paul, "created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10). The gospel demands cultural activity, not as a way to merit God's grace, but, to paraphrase the Heidelberg Catechism , as a grateful, heartfelt response to saving grace. Thus, genuine culture is the work of redeemed hearts and sanctified hands. It is creative and formative labor, unfolding and magnifying the creation to the glory of its Creator and Redeemer. Its consequences are vital.

By splitting faith and works, and setting the "great commission" (Matt. 28:1920) against the "cultural mandate" (Gen. 1:28; I Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17), the church divided the indivisible, and was left pondering how to put the pieces back together again. J. Gresham Machen, recognizing the church's folly as early as 1912, lamented that "one of the greatest of the problems agitating the Church is the problem of the relation . . . between culture and Christianity." [1] The problem could be resolved, he noted, in only one of three ways: (1) subordinate Christianity to culture; (2) seek to destroy culture; or (3) consecrate culture to the service of God.

The first solution -- the one nine out of ten choosy theological liberals prefer -- subordinates the unchanging truths of the Scriptures to the ever-changing cultural fads. The "social gospel," "liberation theology," "feminist theology," and most other religious fads du jour turn the redemptive work of Christ into its exact opposite. As Machen recognized, "[I]n subordinating Christianity to culture we have really destroyed Christianity, and what continues to bear the old name is a counterfeit."[2] This solution also creates counterfeit culture. The subordination of Christianity to culture suppresses the biblical norms necessary for authentic culture and leaves people to make up their own rules. The relativism of individual "taste" becomes the final standard. Taste cultures quickly degenerate into a no-win war between "high culture" aficionados (opera, ballet, theater, New Yorker magazine, designer fashions, original art, fine wines, nouvelle cuisine, BMWs, etc.) and "pop culture" brutes (television, movies, MTV, People magazine, Wal-Mart fashion, plastic pink flamingoes, beer, fast food, and used Ford trucks ["Hey!" says the Editor]) . The subordination of Christianity to culture negates Christianity and leaves us to choose between phony sophistication and mindless barbarity.

"The second solution," Machen observed, "goes to the opposite extreme. In its effort to give religion a clear field, it seeks to destroy culture." [3] This solution appeals particularly to weak churches who tremble before the cultural giants in the land. Pious Christians may admit they have a part in human culture, but they treat cultural activity as an unworthy task. Rather than use and exercise their cultural talents, they bury them in fear. They prefer, instead, to fingerpoint, self-righteously identifying the sins of others while ignoring their own. Of course, pointing out the sins of American culture is relatively easy business. The godless cultural giants in the land are big and fat and slow and easy targets to hit. Blatant sin is always an easy target, even for the biblically nearsighted. However, cultural critics who bear no fruit of their own are curmudgeons and Pharisees. They are experts at pointing out others' sins, but they cannot point the way.

The former vice president's celebrated attack on the captains of the cultural industries perhaps best illustrates the insufficiency of Christian curmudgeonry. Dan Quayle condemned the sexual i mmorality and twisted view of family depicted in the popular sitcom "Murphy Brown." But without a serious sanctified cultural alternative to offer in its place, Quayle's attack had no power, no punch. "Murphy Brown" is still standing firm in the network television ratings and flourishing in global syndication; the former vice president just stands politically infirm somewhere in Indiana. The second solution tries feebly to destroy neo-pagan culture, and offers only escapism or withered fruit in its place.

The third solution Machen identified is the Christian consecration of culture. "Instead of destroying the arts and sciences or being indifferent to them, let us cultivate them with all the enthusiasm of the veriest humanist, but at the same time consecrate them to the service of our God," he wrote. "Instead of obliterating the distinction between the Kingdom and the world, or on the other hand withdrawing from the world into a sort of modernized intellectual monasticism, let us go joyfully, enthusiastically to make the world subject to God." [4] The Bible commands the church to put all thingsincluding cultureat Christ's feet. Machen argued that "the Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. . . . The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensively, but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man." [5] The consecration of culture unto Christ is the only sure way to neutralize the corrosive acids of modernity.