Religiously conservative Christians in America are puzzled as to how they should engage the world of unbelievers that surround them. They, or I should say we, are puzzled because we have experienced a series of setbacks that point to how we use to engage the world. Much of our history of how to interact with the world has hurt credibility of the Gospel we rely on to live. And because our spiritual ancestors, and perhaps we ourselves, have so harmed the reputation of the Gospel by how they have interacted with culture, we find it more difficult to impact America today.
Church history is not very kind to us. Christianity held sway for most of the history of America and it has become associated with white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, racial bigotry, religious persecution, favoring the wealthy, ignoring the poor, supporting unjust wars, ignoring climate change, and persecuting the LGBT community. For what we are suppose to believe how we should act, religiously conservative Christianity has a relatively long rap sheet.
Quite recently, Trevin Wax (click here for a brief bio) just recently written an article on how we Christians should try to impact the world around us. Now because his article was posted on the Gospel Coalition website, it is an easy and short read. But that also means that it lacks some depth and perhaps, for brevity's sake, nuance. And yet it brings up issues that we need to consider.
In his article (click here for the article), Wax gives 3 suggestions for how we Christians can better and more faithfully impact our culture. At this point, a red flag has just shot up a flag pole. That is because there have been too many times that we have used a call to impact culture to try to control our culture. And when we do that, we invariably end up marginalizing some groups of people.
Another red flag rocketed up when before presenting his 3 suggestions, Wax made the following statement:
To put it another way, we cannot compartmentalize the Christian faith, as if following Jesus does not transform our perspective regarding the various spheres of life, including politics. Discipleship requires teaching on how best to speak the truth in a world of lies, to promote life in a culture of death, to lift up the goodness of the created order in a world full of people who negate the natural law and harm humanity through their errant and destructive understanding of human freedom and identity.
When Wax talks about not compartmentalizing, he is likely talking about not letting the context of an interaction adjust one's message. The truth he wants us to speak to the culture is based on the Christian understanding of natural law and is most likely thinking about what to say about LGBT issues. Here he is most probably thinking about Romans 1 where Paul describes homosexuality as being against nature.
But the problem with the nature argument, though it has merit as Paul uses it, is that we see same sex behavior in at least hundreds of species if not over 1,000 species. What becomes of the natural law argument then?
Wax's apparent motive then is to have Christians try to effectively speak to culture so that society follows Christian morals and values such as rejecting homosexuality as a normal sexual orientation. And that means that we return to a part of Church history where Christians have justified causing the oppression of a group. We should note here that while Paul's argument about homosexuality is valid, there is no indication that Paul or the other apostles were directing us to speak to culture so that the LGBT community would be punished by society by some degree of marginalization. Speaking against homosexuality and other LGBT issues should only be reserved for evangelism and for speaking within the Church. That is because evangelism isn't about changing culture, it is about inviting people to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of one's sins and thus to join the Church.
Next we should address Wax's first suggestion. That suggestion says that we should be on guard against political idolatry. Wax states that there are two ways by which we can make politics into a false god. The first way is to expect too much from our government. Though it is true that we can expect too much from our government, no guidance is given as to when that occurs.
The second way we can make politics into an idol is to unwittingly accept how a political ideology tends to deify some part of creation. And so the Christian must so influenced by the Scriptures that they can identify and challenge where an ideology is deifying a part of creation.
Again, nothing is said to further explain what is meant there. But here, I think Wax misses a real opportunity to address how we can make politics into an idol based on how we regard a political ideology. I think he would have said things better if he, in his warning about political ideologies, told us not to regard any political ideology as being omniscient and thus not needing the input from any other ideology. One of the basic causes for the divisiveness we have in our nation is when we regard a given political ideology as being omniscient. Doing so cuts us off from others who hold to different ideologies and causes us to see them as threats.
So while missing an opportunity to make a better point, Wax gives a Tim Keller like view of political ideologies--Keller would say that all political ideologies are reductionistic by disregarding all concerns except for 1. My guess is that Wax makes the point that he does so that we Christians can stand in the position of correcting those who hold to their favorite political ideologies. But again, and if I am correct here, look at the position that Christians are putting themselves in by trying to impact culture. The Christian is to look down on the ignorant or unaware unbeliever as they hold to their favorite ideology. The Christian becomes the teacher of others, but never the student. And that kind of attitude hurts our witness for Christ.
Wax's next suggestion is actually very helpful and should, but does not, mitigate the problems that I think come with his first suggestion. That suggestion says that we are not to speak with any authority on issues on which we are not competent to speak. That seems to be a reversal from what I saw in his comment about political ideologies, but what it is saying, by the example he gave, we are not to try to propose solutions about issues and problems about which we don't know enough. Also, we should not expect our ministers to propose solutions to social, economic, or political problems when they lack the expertise in those subjects to do so.
But then Wax says something else under this suggestion that is prematurely causing Christians to anticipate being persecuted. He wrote: 'If it’s true that we are heading into a “negative world” in which the hostility toward Christian morality will increase.' Here, it is important to draw a distinction between hostility for believing something vs hostility for trying to impose or force your views on others. Christians face very little hostility for following their own convictions in how they live, But when Christians try to impose their values on others by promoting certain laws and policies or by trying to impact culture, some people will respond with hostility. Their hostility is not the result of the personal beliefs of another person. Their hostility is because we have been trying to force values on them in a society where they should be free from any social consequences of following their own ways.
Here, we must distinguish between evangelizing others and trying to impact culture as Wax seems to be advocating. Evangelizing asks neither culture nor society to change, it asks the individual listener to change and become a member of the Church. From what I see, when we try to impact culture the way Wax seems to be advocating, we are showing hostility to the culture and society. Their rejection of our hostility becomes a provoked response.
In areas of social justice, trying to impact culture and society by telling them what they must do to be just is appropriate. But where in the New Testament are we told to impact culture and society for personal moral behaviors that do not infringe on the rights of others?
Wax's 3rd suggestion is similar to what I wrote about political ideologies. Wax notes that we need all kinds of witnesses for Christ. My view of political ideologies, and this is despite, or perhaps because, I lean toward Marxism, is that since there are no political ideologies that are omniscient, we need to employ what is taught from other ideologies so that, in the end, our approach is more of a hybrid ideological approach to addressing issues and solving problems. Such hybrid approach helps prevent us from idolizing any political ideology.
In the end, what is disappointing about Wax's article is that he puts the Christian in the position of having to correct almost everything that the unbeliever would tell them about politics. Wax has the Christian standing in judgment over the unbelieving world. I don't believe that the New Testament tells Christians to put themselves in that position.
References
- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/truthful-witness-public-square/
- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/trevin-wax/
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