Cultural Influence of Christianity

I was trying to read an article in Relevant Magazine entitled, "Can Christians Still Influence American Culture?" It was mostly an interview with Rick Warren. I admit to not getting through the whole thing, but there were two salient points that did not escape my current ADHD demeanor.

The first was that in the early days of the church, there were no church buildings. Christians met privately in homes or outdoors in the countryside mostly to escape notice of the authorities. They did this because Christianity was illegal. It was not exactly an urban faith centered in a community building bustling with activity. Faith was a 'one on one' thing. People heard the Good News from a friend and individual lives would change.The social side of Christianity had not yet developed. People did not show up at a church door in need of counsel or material help or out of spiritual destitution. There were no professional "God minders" that you could visit. Christians actually shared their faith with people as they saw the need.

When bubonic plague spread in the major cities of the empire, the inhabitants left in droves to avoid illness and left the sick to die alone. It was at this point that the Christians moved to town to care for the dying and show them the compassion of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   

The early Roman Christians offered two things to their culture. Hope from the gospel in one on one situations and compassion for the poor, weak, sick, injured and troubled.

How did we lose that explosive combination of cultural influence?

Instead, today we focus on political means to affect cultural change. "If only we can elect 'John Smith'. He's a Christian. He will reignite respect for the 'Christian way of life' in our once Christian nation." Or..."if we just vote for this party". Or..."if we can just pass these laws" everything will be all better.

If you believe any of those things, you are ignorant beyond measure. We cannot use secular power and the tools of men to achieve God's purposes. God can and does. We cannot. In times passed when church and state have worked together, it is the church that has always been corrupted. The two should never be united. They should always be at cross purposes. When the brutality of the state is crushing the people, it is us that must move into the current meme and practice our faith as laid down by our Lord. We must offer hope and compassion to oppressed people.

It is only in this way that we will be able to influence our culture for Christ. Faith, Hope and Love...but the greatest of these is Love.

The second thing I got from the article was that law is downstream from culture. By the time we get around to pushing for laws to limit behavior, the poison is already in the water. Instead, we need to focus our efforts upstream of government and law and politics. Cultural influence in our society starts in the arts, sports and entertainment fields. To this I would add, in the home.

When Christians work and act as Christians in these areas, it can have an effect. People notice. Faith is an attractive thing when it has legs and arms and cares.

We cannot force the world to change with the power of government or law. We might make them behave differently, but they will be resentful of the perceived oppression. And why should they obey God's laws and morality if they are not believers?

Faith comes by hearing my friends. We have to tell them why they need Jesus and we have to be compassionate and loving about it. When they come to belief, then the culture will change. When the culture changes then the governments of the world will change.

From the bottom up. That was the original strategy. It's why there is still a church today. We need to be doing that again.