Cultural Criticism

One of my biggest problems with the emerging movement is what seems to be a commonly-held view of culture. One of my biggest problems with Modernity is what seems to be a commonly-held view of culture. Apparently I have culture issues!...The emerging movement folk usually imply that culture is basically amoral, with exceptions made for a few particularly degenerate cases (I doubt any emerging folk would defend a tribal culture that validated cannibalism, for example). Modern (vs. postmodern) churches, on the other hand, seem to routinely view culture as being divided into sacred and secular realms [see our ongoing discussion here]. Neither of these views seems particularly Biblical to me.

It seems to me that a local culture should be interpreted on its own terms - from the mindset of the local culture. In other words, you can't bring our personal cultural view to the discussion of why culture X does/believes/practices a particular thing. You have to try to get inside the mindset of the local culture to properly interpret a given cultural act or attitude. On this point, emerging folk are strong.

But we must also be sure to evaluate a local culture through the Scriptures. This is much harder to do than most of us like to think - you can't bring your own cultural baggage to the Biblical discussion! But done properly, this thinking can help us to see the inherent strengths (reflections of God's goodness) and weaknesses (reflections of the Fall) of a given local culture. Here emerging folk often seem weak.

For example, according to Emerging Churches (by Gibbs and Bolger) a ministry to British club-culture people that embraced dancing in bikinis showed a serious commitment to embodying the Gospel while authentically embracing the culture. So dancing in bikinis is an amoral cultural phenomenon? Seriously?! The Bible has nothing to say about the merits (or lack thereof) of nearly-naked women dancing for all the world to see?

Modern churches would label such activity "secular" (or more probably "worldly") and be done with it. But, as I keep saying, I don't think the secular/sacred dichotomy is a particularly helpful way of looking at the world.

Instead, we lay all of a given culture over the sieve of Scripture. Whatever falls through we declare fit for His service (whether it fits our pre-conceived Christian-ism notions or not); whatever doesn't we throw out as a product of the Fall. So (for example) going to the local pub to work alongside the LORD as He leads people to His Son? - falls through the sieve. Getting hammered while at the pub in order to authentically embrace the culture? - doesn't fit the sieve; toss it out.

So honestly, how many of you think I'm crazy?

Hatushili