Culture as an Enemy to Authentic Christian Living

This is HOTM Short! Where . . .

I’m your host, Shawn McCraney

Show 19s Beware! Beware! Beware! Taped Sunday February 17th 2021 Aired Monday February 18th 2021

Along the road of human life and then of course relative to what we talk about here, which is Christianity, there is a dreaded enemy lurking in the bushes and byways of the world. It is smooth, subtle, and persuasive and it romances us initially with claims of adoration and love but winds up being nothing more than a super controlling spouse in the end. This enemy to “authentic living, unity, liberty and love” is sometimes curated and other times occurring naturally, but it always wants things its way, always has demands, will always reject you if you don’t conform and will always war against everything and everybody else outside of its grip. What am I talking about? CULTURE. Of every sort, in every field, and from every gathering of people.

From a very early age, I began to observe the impact culture has on people and by my early teens grew to develop a pretty healthy disdain for all of them as a result of what I both saw and experienced. Cultures are usually a natural by-product of human beings needing to feel secure through belonging, to feel superior to the rest of the world, and in some cases, through the desire to control and govern. There is a “strength in numbers” mentality in most cultures (unless the culture prides itself in being small) but those numbers will always define themselves through a myriad of demands and expectations.

The Nature of Human Cultures

As mentioned, I began to observe the nature of human cultures as a child – cultures based in race and nationality, on socio-economic factors, and hobbies which are expressed through lifestyles, music, foods, activities, and dress. High school became a universe of cultures – the jocks, the nerds, the popular people, the partiers, the surfers – right? All with their associated demands and expectations. These things only became more defined with age as adults orbit around life with a “birds of a feather” attitude, reassuring each other that as liberals, or as conservatives, or the rich or poor, that they have something the rest of the world does not, and that as a result they are “superior,” in some way – intellectually, morally, or in prioritization. In essence, culture is founded in fear and pride – two attributes that are in fact anathema to Christian love and life.

I started to mess around with cultural expectations in my teens. To me, it was ridiculous to fully clothe oneself in the protective gear of one culture while refusing to merge in with what others had to offer. And while I was certainly drawn to specific cultures naturally – “The southern California punk culture, the culture of surfing, lifeguarding, swimming and water polo, even the culture of being a Mormon and a trouble-maker – I tried to retain these cultural identifiers unapologetically while also attempting to merge in with other people-groups of different ways and worldviews.

Personal Experiences with Cultural Expectations

I couldn’t see any reason not to ask out an attractive, popular girl from a super wealthy Protestant background with a shaved head and a bandana tied around my boot. I liked relating with black people in Watts, Hispanics in East LA, and artists in Laguna. But I usually discovered that every established culture I sought to enter they all ultimately tried to make me “a version of themselves,” and rejected me if those attempts were not received.

Generally speaking, all cultures will, to some degree or another, consist of the following:

• They have rules (spoken and unspoken)
• Demands and expectations
• An “us versus them” mentality
• Attitudes of pride and superiority
• And in the end, all of them express downright viciousness to the outside world.

The Consequences of Cultural Conformity

The rules govern the tribe and are well understood by every participant. When the rules are rejected, the cultural participant will be rejected. Same with the demands and expectations of the Culture. Active Mormons don’t hang out in bars, Christians aren’t typically using coke, and punks hate disco. These demands and expectations almost always express themselves outwardly in dress, style, places frequented, and friends received.

In all this, an “us versus them” mentality is established. Jocks typically do not join chess club, conservatives do not get tattoos, and true Christians do not say the F word. The culture becomes the predator and the rest of the non-conformists become the subject of derision. Which emphasizes the attitudes of pride and superiority within each group.

“We are the best.” “Our way is superior” “You are lessor” “We are

Embracing Agape Love Over Cultural Barriers

“You are not entitled.”

And in the end, these attitudes of pride and arrogance lead to ought right viciousness, which is all antithetical to agape love. My savior broke through cultural barriers. He, a Jew, sat with sinners, talked alone with a Samaritan woman at the well, touched lepers, and refused to embrace the man-made rules imposed upon Him by the culture from which he originated.

Rejecting Objective Religion

For this reason, it seems to me that all Christians ought to do everything in their power to refuse the cultural demands men and women have created for them. And this all speaks to a rejection of what men have called Objective Religion and leads to the Reception of a Subjective Relationship every individual has with the living God. Christians have no rules (spoken and unspoken) other than the rules to love written on their hearts by God.

Christians live by no external demands and expectations to which they must embrace. Christians refuse all “us versus them” mentalities and see the world as a body of souls whose sins have been paid for by Jesus, with all—regardless of race or gender or lifestyle—needing to know and understand His love for them. Christians refuse attitudes of pride and superiority, they reject "my way is better than yours," and they refuse to divide with those who do not think or believe like they do. Christians realize that all of these things, in the end, lead to downright viciousness, which is the last thing a Christian ought to be known for.

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