This is the Part One in a series on The Christian’s Role Culture, Politics and Government
“Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
– Andrew Fletcher
Whoever tells the stories and writes the songs of a culture, shapes and directs that culture. Whoever creates and circulates the ideas of a culture, shapes and directs that culture.
The academy and the arts are the birthing centers and engines of culture. Ideas that emerge from the academic and artistic realms do not stay within their borders. Those ideas make their way out and spread throughout the society. Some ideas are good, some ideas are bad. As I’ve said before, ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims.
How do ideas shape reality and culture?
Below is a simple sequence…
Step 1: Academy – Ideas become theories about reality (past, present of future). Papers, books and programs are written, promoted and circulated in the academic realm.
Step 2: Arts (music, poetry, film, narrative) – Ideas are expressed in forms and mediums designed to bypass logic and reason, impacting and shaping the social imagination and emotions.
Step 3: Elites and Media – Ideas are then adopted, popularized and promoted by celebrities, cultural leaders, business leaders, and mass media outlets in various forms in an effort to ‘legitimize’ new ideas. Those ideas ‘take hold’ in the popular imagination and are adopted by a growing majority of people in a population.
Step 4: Politics – Politics is basically the last bastion of pure cultural power – for good or for ill. This is where popularized ideas are ensconced in legislation and become law. In other words, politicians and judges basically say, “Since this idea is what the majority of people want, let’s make it the law of the land.” (e.g. abolition of slavery, voting rights, civil rights, abortion on demand, no-fault divorce, same-sex marriage, etc)
Politicians are basically responding to cultural forces (ideas) that originally emerged in the academy or perhaps the arts. The process above usually occurs over decades or centuries.
Scroll right on the images below to get a visual idea of how how ideas shape culture works using an example of Darwinian Evolution…
Politics is downstream from culture.
Therefore, it is a mistake and waste of energy to attempt to influence or change culture at the political level. To put it another way, if you see pollution in a river, you must travel upstream to find the source of the pollution. If you are seeing bad laws being passed or politicians advocating for harmful ideas, by all means stand against them, campaign against them and vote against them. However, you must understand where those politicians got their bad ideas in the first place. You must go upstream!
I’m not saying Christians should abandon the political process or refrain from running for political office or cease advocating for just laws. I’m not saying that at all. On the contrary, Christians ought to exercise their civic duties and express their convictions and callings in the political realm.
However, we Christians must learn to walk and chew gum at the same time. In other words, we ought to engage in politics as we would other cultural enterprises like raising families, educating our children, caring for the needy or how we spend time and money – All for the glory of God and the good of all people created in His image. At the same time, Christians ought to go upstream in the culture to exercise their gifts, talents, and express their convictions and callings in the realms of the academy, arts and media.
Why? Because those realms are inhabited by human beings made in God’s image and we care about them. Can a Christian honestly claim to love God and love our neighbors while allowing bad ideas to harm our neighbors and distort God’s image or Word?
The answer is, No! Scripture is clear that God will hold us to account for our thoughts, words and actions. There is no excuse for Christian navel-gazing, indifference, apathy or retreat to a holy huddle. We are not a liberty to not care about the world God created or people made in His image. Not caring is not an option.
“Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” does not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds?” (Proverbs 24:11-12)
At the same time, Christians should approach culture as Christians, not as politicians. We are engaged in a bigger enterprise of making disciples of the nations (societies) and calling them to obey God’s commands. That means, Christians have permission and good reason to reach and reside in the mission fields of the academy, arts and music, media, elite circles and yes, even politics. Those cultural realms are inhabited by human beings who need to know that God loves them too and sent his son to redeem them from sin.
God is the ultimate solution to the problems in the world, not politics or politicians. As ambassadors of the Kingdom of Christ, we accurately diagnose the problems and point to the only solution.
Recap:
- As I demonstrated above, politics is downstream from culture where ideas are formed, shaped and promoted.
- Christians have a right and obligation to engage in ALL legitimate human enterprises, institutions and cultural realms for the glory of God and the good of ALL image-bearers.
- Christians ought to exercise their civic duties and express their convictions and callings in the political realm. Knowing politics nor politicians are the ultimate solution.
- Christians ought to travel upstream in the culture to exercise their gifts, talents, and express their convictions and callings in the realms of the academy, arts and media.
“There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not cry, ‘Mine’!
– Abraham Kuyper
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
Live in such a way that the light of Christ shines brightly in the time and place in which God put you. God made you and saved you for this time and place.
Next time we’ll go a little deeper…. The Christian’s Role in Culture, Politics and Government
This is a great reminder, Lance. Thank you. As I look at the model for how ideas shape reality and culture, is it possible that there has been a shift from politics being downstream to perhaps more over the center of culture these days? I wonder if in the past things moved more at a trickle or slower flowing stream to what we see now in a rush of ideas and instant communication (via media and other outlets). I think you’re right that we as Christians still need to play a role in all realms of life – academics, art, etc. One thing we can do in the political realm is pray specifically for various issues that will be decided on in the judicial system as the year rounds out. I do believe the political realm is heavily impacting all of our lives these days.
Christy. Great questions and insights.
“is it possible that there has been a shift from politics being downstream to perhaps more over the center of culture these days?”
This is a good insight. From my perspective and “non-expert” opinion, politics has not shifted from being downstream, as it were, to a position further upstream in the culture. Its actually we as people who live in this cultural moment are experiencing the political / legislative ramifications of cultural undercurrents that occurred over the previous 150 years crest like a wave hitting a beach. Like waves that are formed by currents and wind far offshore and make their way to shore, they rise as they come into contact with shallows – finally crashing on shore.
Ideas are the same way. Political legal decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges and Roe v. Wade didn’t just suddenly emerge. The ideas that shaped the culture and set the conditions for those decisions to occur took decades to build in the academy, arts, music, media and elite circles before becoming ‘the law of the land.’
Let’s look at the refugee / asylum-seeker border crisis. The new dominant Marxian / Critical Theory (oppressor / zero sum game) culture operates from the philosophical belief (worldview) that America is the colonialist oppressor of the entire world. So, politicians who hold that worldview view allowing people from poor nations into the US as an exercise in justice (equity). Allow the rich ‘oppressor’ nation to be invaded by the poor ‘oppressed’ nations in order to even the playing field.
If you look at Afghanistan through this same worldview lens, you’ll understand why the US left billions of dollars worth of equipment and technology behind. The new dominant political class (hegemony) in the US see America as an oppressive colonialist occupier of a poorer nation, the way to reach equity is to abandon billions in equipment, leaving it to the Taliban. They don’t care that the Taliban will kill their own with our weapons or attack the US with our own weapons – that type of calculation does not dawn in the mind of someone who has a warped view of good and evil. The new political class would think its a good thing if we were attacked – in their eyes, we deserve it.
Logic and reason are abandoned for a myopic, flat and illogical ideology. If that makes sense…. politics will always be downstream, we’ve just entered the totalizing political realm in the west. We end up fighting political battles on the their terms while they own us in the academy, arts, media and elite circles. We must go upstream. It will take at least 2 generations from now to shift the culture.
It will require an awakening and revival the likes we’ve never seen before….
Thank you for your response and explanations, Lance. I appreciate the thoroughness in your writing, and what you’ve laid out helps me understand this topic more clearly. The impatient person in me wants to see change in my lifetime. But as you’ve pointed out, this is a long-term haul, and we have to think of future generations. Thanks for your insight on this challenging subject.