Cultural Christianity

For those of you who don’t know yet…the real world isn’t a small mid-western Christian country club. Deep conversations are hard to find, and if they come, they’re usually accompanied with a beer in hand. The latest sex gossip travels fast, and there’s no such thing as, “Wow, that’s way too much information.” Religious talk is welcomed to a point everyone feels comfortable – universalism at it’s finest. True friendship is something to latch onto. It’s something which arouses jealousy for those who actually find it. At first glance, it might seem as though I am anti-the-real-world. But what if these experiences were to not drive us away from our Christian bubble, but in fact allow us to demonstrate the truth that will pop its naivety completely? Could these experiences allow us to stop being inwardly focused on “Christian Community” and start building the Kingdom of God?

Christians often joke about the “Holy Huddle” of believers, but after jumping out of the huddle, the actuality of it scares me. There are quite a few things I’ve taken in as I reflect on being outside the world I’m used to. It’ll take a bit for me to really make sense of them, but I think I’ll get a better grip by starting this dialog now while you all are still listening. So here it goes…

One of the Moldovans I’ve gotten to know refers to the Orthodox Church as not being Christian. This made me uncomfortable when I heard the statement. “Who’s this guy to say they’re not Christian?” A different friend told me of the rituals performed for the sake of a cultural religion. Very few of the people performing these rituals really understood the meaning behind them. It hit me that the reason my Moldovan friend didn’t think they were Christians, was because although they are culturally Christian Orthodox, they did not live a life that tried to glorify God. In fact, their actions often caused people to look at them and say, “If that’s what following God is like, I don’t want any part in it.” This got me to really think about what it means to be “Culturally Christian”.

I quickly found out that in Moldova, and a lot of other countries, it’s ethically exceptable to illegally download movies. In fact, there aren’t even places to buy movies. It’s just assumed that if you want to watch a film, you download it. It wasn’t until I saw someone I consider a leader in the faith download lots of movies and talk about it unashamed that I really understood it is morally accepted here. (Note: if you’re wondering in your head why I would tell everyone it’s okay to illegally download, you’re completely missing the point.) As we start out in the faith, we begin discovering a lot of gray areas which we reason as either “good” or “bad”. A lot of times we make hard and fast rules and then make sure the usage is consistent. If not consistent, we’re left admitting that maybe we weren’t right the first time. One must ask if this good-verse-bad type of consistency is driven by conviction or pride.

As a “cultural Christian” one starts to take what other believers think is “good” or “bad” and take it as truth. This is what forms the Christian bubble. This is also what forms the notion that Christians are judgmental. Without even knowing why, we (yes, this I’m intentionally including myself in this statement) automatically write something off if our cultural Christianity says it’s taboo. Let’s look at an exaggerated example. Let’s say someone starts driving their car on the sidewalk in the US (I added the “in the US” because it’s actually okay to this in Moldova). Without even thinking about it, I would instinctively think they were drunk or at least shouldn’t have a license. Even if it is just internal, the person would react to situation negatively. This is something our culture has stated is not okay. In the same way, a lot of times when a Christian sees someone doing something “bad” they think they shouldn’t have a “license” AKA shouldn’t be acting that way. Whether hidden in their thoughts or even bluntly verbalized, a negative vibe is definitely given off. I think this is the cause of judgment. Judgment is reacting negatively to a person or situation because you do not agree with what is happening. In other words, it’s an inability to connect with a person because one has already decided that something this person does or believes in is “bad”.

What I’ve slowly started to realize is that what a Christian culture deems “bad” is not always Biblically bad, even if a verse is pulled out of context and quoted. One of my friends put it this way, “That’s why I think I like traveling so much. I can experience who God really is instead of what everyone back home thinks he is.” By wanting to take Jesus seriously, I think we need to experience who God really is, and I think that’s done by putting love before judgment and the Bible before a Christian popularity contest.

As Christians, what would happen if we didn’t write people off for the immediate vibe they gave us? What if we could TRULY understand how to love our neighbor as our self, even if they’re atheist? What if we could see God in humanity as a whole again? Would we rather demand the truth of Scripture or be fake? Wouldn’t it bring others closer to knowing the Kingdom of God? And if it’s at the cost of popping this Christian bubble and sacrificing the title of a “good Christian” so that truth is known, would you do it? These are a few of the questions I’ve been asking myself.

I wish I had some great conclusion for this blog post, but if I had a conclusion I would be ending something I know I need to better understand. I don’t want to shut the door on a great conversation, but instead I want to ask those close to me who care about their faith to think about this with me. Please feel free to post responses, criticisms, or suggestions how to better portray the truth. If you would rather e-mail me my e-mail is bobbielydick@gmail.com With that said, I’ll end with a quote that really hit me. It’s by one of my good friends struggling with Christianity. She said…

“I don’t doubt that Jesus existed, but I don’t think he meant for his followers to turn out like this.”