One of my readers sent me two very interesting links. The first is on the phenomenon of “subcultural segregation,” especially of the politically like-minded, and the second is on a similar topic, but more applied to the overall quality of civic life in our culture.
Let me translate some of these ideas out a bit: For a Jesus follower, spending all our time in various club-like enclaves with people who are just like ourselves is simply not an option. We must cross the cultural and subcultural barriers that are around us, and we must make intentional, missional efforts to do what Jesus did in going to/relating to Samaritans, Gentiles, women, lepers, Romans, sinners and people from various circles on the cultural map.
The Galilee of Jesus’ day was a multicultural place. To function in his world, Jesus was constantly confronted with the need to deal with other cultures, other languages, other customs and comfort zones. Into this world, the Pharisees, zealots and Essenes had put forward their own options for dealing with those who were different. Those options ranged from asserting a new encyclopedia of rules, declaring “clean and unclean” zones/persons, withdrawing into subculture ghettos of their own and declaring those who were different worthy of violent response.
As a result, some of the most controversial and incarnationally revealing things Jesus did were simply actions of eating with sinners, touching lepers, speaking to women, walking through communities and taking a public stand against the religious ghetto-think of his time.
The articles linked above suggest that America, with all its proclaimed cultural diversity, has increasingly become a place where people congregate with those of similar color, culture, language, politics and consumer choices. Similarity in political-religious viewpoints, lifestyles and “values” are defining aspects of where people choose to live, recreate, work and do business. This flocking together with mirror versions of ourselves feeds the culture war, and feeds many other negative, anti-Jesus-shaped trends in modern religious life.
It’s a painful truth that many of us don’t want to think about.
I live and work in a multi-cultural environment. I’m forced every day to deal with people of different colors, origins, religions and ways of thinking. The commitment to cross these cultural barriers is one of the most Jesus-shaped things our community does. Of course, as you might expect, it’s also one of the things our critics have the most to say about it. There are many Christians who would look at our multi-cultural ministry and criticize us for being too open to people of different color and culture.
But what are they really saying? That Jesus sent his disciples out to form a suburb? We all know better. The only way to stay safe in our subcultural comfort zones is to change Jesus to suit our “lifestyle” concerns.
I’ve learned in my life that when Christians speak of Jesus you must ask some basic questions.
Are they speaking of Jesus as he really was, or as they imagine him to be?
Does this Jesus bless and approve of a privileged status for one group, color, denomination or nation?
Does this Jesus call us to discipleship or simply preside over a way of life we’ve come to call the “Christian lifestyle?”
Does this Jesus cross barriers, or does he send us back to hang with our own kind?
Does this Jesus have a mission, or just a moral agenda?
Does this Jesus show us where the Kingdom of God calls us, or does he spiritualize the Kingdom so that we never have to really think about it unless we’re about to die?
Is this Jesus a white, American Christian? Or a middle-eastern Jewish teacher?
Does this Jesus leave me alone? Or does he call me into community?
Does this Jesus give me a spirituality that makes me a “good Christian” on my own comfortable terms, or does he offer me a spirituality grounded in grace, but calling me into the tension of discipleship beyond the boundary lines drawn by religion?
Does this Jesus serve as the official spokesperson for organized religions lobotomized version of the Kingdom and the King, or is this the Jesus who started a world changing, cross-cultural movement of people filled with the power of the Kingdom of God?
If there is anything more important than this in the current situation, I don’t know what it would be. Look at the difference between Jesus and other religious leaders on just this one issue, and then wonder how Christians have come to be some of the most ghetto ensconced, subculture defending, behind-the-walls-of-the-sanctuary people on the planet.
So true, and yet so hard to do. We have to be intentional about being cross-cultural or it just won’t happen.
Tim Melton at Sacrosanct Gospel has an interesting link to a preview of the movie Lord Save Us From Your Followers. Some might find it a touch offensive, but it does communicate our need to get cross-cultural.
P.S. A black female co-worker just came into my office. I asked her what she was doing this weekend and she said, “It’s pride week, I am going to the pride parade to hang out with friends.” All of a sudden I am feeling pretty cross-cultural.
Mike Bell
Thank you for this post, Michael. Faith-wise, I’ve felt utterly crippled because in my efforts to reach out to the Christians around me, I’ve only felt doors closed in my face. They’re doors which are closed albeit politely, silently, or even gently, and seldom are they slammed shut in my face with the subtlety of a Three Stooges stunt. However, they’re still closed doors all the same.
I was born, raised, and used to live in Toronto, one of the most multicultural cities in the world; in high school and university, I mingled with people from a whole variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, and found that God’s love and grace, and Christ’s forgiveness always came from the most unlikely of places – the kindness my Muslim friends gave me, or the support my atheist and agnostic friends gave me in the times when my Christian friends were nowhere to be seen. I learned that God is so much bigger than the holes and boxes we love to put Him into, and that we are ultimately all made in His image, and loved.
When I moved to the East Coast of Canada to do my M.Sc, everything changed. Much like the Christian groups in my undergrad that I tried to integrate myself with (and later stopped trying), people were so caught up in their own little bubbles formed around church groups, youth groups, ministry groups, and mission trip groups, or were people so content with their own social and familial groups that attempts from relative outsiders like me just were met with a polite rebuff, with a subtle subtext of mistrust (I’d been later told that a great deal of it is because of a cultured mistrust of the opposite sex and a cultured mistrust of friendships with the opposite sex). They just refuse to ever leave their spiritual and societal comfort zones. It’s left me wondering if it might be because I’m not white, not part of the local variant of the Baptist church, my Catholic background, or simply because I’m from one of the most hated cities in Canada (no joke…well, sort of).
It really has left me feeling deeply isolated, lonely and depressed. I experienced God so much in my friendships in the past and to be deprived of that by the people I try to reach out to has left me feeling starved for whatever human contact I can get.
On the bright side, it has turned me on to reading Thomas Merton…
One of the biggest “self-segregating” dilemmas is what to do with our children. Do we send them to private Christian schools, shield them from the mainstream culture, and try to segregate them from society at large? Or do we allow our children freedom from a Christian “ghetto” so they can interact with the world as it really exists, and not just some fantasy version of it we create to protect them.
Good post. Lots to think about.
Thanks for linking to “Lord, Save Me From Your Followers”, Eclectic Christian. I’m thinking of trying to get it shown to my local InterVarsity group, of which I’m somewhat involved. They’re trying to work with the general theme of unity, and I think it’d fit really well with that.
On the subject of Gay Pride, one of the best experiences I had here was with a fellow grad student who was gay – he listened to, and understood me and my griping about life here when no one else would. I’ll always value that, and it’s taught me about the meaning of doing for someone what no other person would ever do for me.
It seems like the dilemma concerning our children occurs only if we choose not to be intentional about being cross-cultural.
Having said that, if I didn’t live in such a suburban “everyone pretty much like me” culture, it would probably make the decision a little more difficult.
Charley,
Let me give you my take on your question. We have three kids and we have chosen to home school them and also to shelter them from some of the media and things that would be harmful to them at a young age. As they get older, we give them more exposure to things that will challenge them, but do so in the context of teaching them God’s Truth. I look at it this way. The Bible makes it plain that we are in a spiritual war as believers (Ephesians 6). We don’t send our military into war until they have been trained for warfare. You don’t take an 18 year old kid off the street and send them to Iraq with a gun and say, “Go get ’em”. Similarly, I plan to put my kids through spiritual “basic training” if you will, before I send them out into the trenches of full-on spiritual war. Will there be hands on “training exercises”? You bet. But, as believers, I think our responsibility as Christian parents to train up our children in the Lord demands that we prepare them the best we can, before we send them into battle.
Jeff M
[…] I have a new post at Jesus Shaped Spirituality called “Jesus Says Cross the Line.” […]
Interesting. In Malcolm X’s “Autobiography,” he writes that what moved him from militant anti-segregation to peaceful Islam was his visit to Mecca. He describes the thousands of people, mingling together yet naturally gravitating into ‘pockets’ of like-cultures within the larger crowd. He then realized that this is better: not one homogeneous mass with all the differences evenly distributed, but groups of similarity within the unity.
This seems to cohere with the ‘body of Christ’ analogy given by Paul, and if I may extrapolate a bit, my heart cells work much better when they are together in the same place! Yet they still interact with and serve the needs of the rest of the body. After all, Jesus primarily hung out with twelve Jewish folks just like him, but they still managed to affect those in completely different cultural situations.
I once heard a pastor of an all-white church express his desire for more racial diversity in the congregation. While I applaud his recognition of the benefits of such diversity, the community where his church was located was composed entirely (100%) of white people; yet were we supposed to feel bad for not being more diverse?
However, I do agree with you, Michael, that “Christians have come to be some of the most ghetto ensconced, subculture defending, behind-the-walls-of-the-sanctuary people on the planet.” The problem seems to be when Christians go out of their way to create said ghetto, not naturally ministering in their given situation.
I just want to point out the other extreme and try to argue for a more balanced perspective.
Thanks for your thoughts and guidance. I just listen to Irwin McManus’ sermon that squarely hits the subject.
[audio src="http://mosaic1.edgeboss.net/download/mosaic1/soul-environments-2008/audio/03-soul-environments-2008.mp3" /]
I am relatively new to your blogs, etc and I am truly enjoying them. Thanks
[…] This is a great read by Michael Spencer from his new blog “Jesus Shaped Spirituality”. I highly recommend reading through his writing. […]
This post sounds a lot like me. I think I’ve said all these things before at one time or another. I knew a church pastor that went out into the neighborhoods surrounding his church, and brought in little kids in dirty clothes, some of them not wearing shoes. It turned out that “those people” weren’t the kind of people his church was interested in ministering to. I know we can never say for sure what Jesus would do, but I find it hard to believe he would arrive early for church just so he could get a cup of Starbucks before service started. I’m not sure Jesus would drive a red BMW, yacking on his cell phone and typing on his laptop all at the same time. Jesus was a laborer for 30 years, and all his parables seem to be about regular 9-5 kind of Joes: fishermen, shepherds, farmers, etc. He was always talking to the kinds of people the religious leaders didn’t talk to, and reminding them that it is the sick who need a physician. The American church has failed to a great extent in being conformed to the image of Christ. It was Ghandi that said our Christians were not much like our Christ. He could see that all the way from India; why don’t we see it?
I think the description of the Christian Ghetto really nails it – I’ve met a lot of Christians here who have been so insulated and isolated from the outside world, in part due to their societal upbringing and in part due to their spiritual upbringing who then have a very shallow and one-dimensional view of people and relationships. For example, I’ve been told on several occaisions that I shouldn’t have friendships with people of the opposite sex because (a) Being male, my intentions are by default some kind of convoluted way to get into a girl’s pants and (b) I’m so obviously going to jump on a girl at the slightest provocation because I’m clearly so uncontrollably horny that around women I have the same level of self-restraint and maturity as a five-year old in the Lego aisle at Toys ‘R Us.
It’s insulting and downright condescending not just to me, but to the very spiritually enriching friendships I’ve had with my female friends in the past, and yet they don’t see it because in their insulated Christian experience they’re taught right out of the “Christian Romance Novel” playbook of interpersonal relationships and have learned to accept it whole-heartedly.
I’ve seen so many Christians refuse to leave the comfortable places in the Ghetto, instead of engaging the outside world, strengthening themselves from its many challenges and growing from its many places of meaningfulness. It just makes me so sad.
[…] Jesus says Cross the Line « Jesus Shaped Spirituality There is no room in Christianity for cliques. (tags: missions discipleship jesus) […]
Michael,
“Are they speaking of Jesus as he really was, or as they imagine him to be?”
Speaking of that, I couldn’t help but notice your new banner. The Jesuses portrayed there sure seem (Northwestern?) European, as opposed to a first century Palestinian Jew.
Not meant to throw stones; just a loving suggestion from a brother in Christ.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
raffi,
the banner makes its own point, which you’ve caught perfectly.
art doing its job.
ms
Being “multi-cultural” isn’t really something I have to think about. Being an “Aspie” means that cultural labels/modifiers are usually too cumbersome to apply, so I take one person at a time. Second, I work at a University library, which means I help students from every socio-economic and cultural background you could imagine.
The key to being multicultural is humility. Invite the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned. You will never lack for diversity that way.
~Anna
Usher: so Deak, do you minister to eagles?
Deacon: Are you nuts? They have no time for anyone but their own
Usher: So why do the suburban Christians insist on constantly trying to “evangelize us buzzards” when in fact, they are all aspiring to be eagles?
Excellent thoughts.
One question on the banner…
Is the Jesus on the far right teaching that kid to use a light saber?
If so, may the force be with Him….
Greg,
That was funny as it was my first thought too. But on further inspection I realized that Jesus is teaching the kid to bat so he can hit home runs, because we all know in America how deeply Jesus cares about our sports success. ;)
Rampancy
You seem to be saying (rather well) what I’ve experienced too. I’ve come to a point, sadly, that I too must choose between relating to the Christian sub-culture or being a loving friend to those outside.
The best example of this was when I used to be members of various Christian societies with my medical-professional organization. The agenda among them was always the same, “Us Vs Them.” Their goals were to vote against the gay and lesbian societies, wear anti gay/lesbian buttons, to write letters and to verbally protest to medical providers that practiced abortion. It was really a culture war.
There was no way I could go out to dinner with a gay friend (at a medical conference) with him wearing his rainbow button and my “Fellowship of Christian ________” button, because he knew that the “Fellowship of Christian ________” had voted against the gays at every corner.
The so-called “prayer breakfasts” at medical conventions were really a group of Christian medical provider from the around the country sitting and bragging (veiled brags-“I have a Jesus-centered practice” or “God did such and such through me”) about all their accomplishments for the Lord and how evil the gays, abortionist and tattooed people were. Those breakfasts seemed like a sewer pit to me and I don’t think Jesus would have been caught dead in one.
I’m no longer part of those groups. I don’t wear their required buttons or Jesus Tee shirts. But instead I get to hang out with my gay, Muslim and other friends without this great cultural barrier. They still know that I’m a Christian. I had written a candid auto-biography for my medical profession that most of them have read, and that book goes into great detail about my less-than-perfect, Christian faith. That’s not a problem for them, but the buttons were.
But, like you, I do miss having some Christian association with my professional groups. I’m sure there are many Christians out there like me . . . but with out the big “Jesus Hates Gays” buttons (okay I’m exaggerating here) I can’t find them.
Ah! I guess the subtlety went over my head. The light saber Jesus should have tipped me off.
Nicely done. I did something similar a while back re: the parable of the prodigal son. Thought you might dig it.
Grace and Peace,
Raffi
My first time reading this blog and . . . I am aware we are ALL made in GOD’s image . . . I believe all means all . . . every last one of us. Humility and obedience is what we lack because of our sin nature but. . . if we are in the sanctification process and seek GOD’s will for our lives, every day, and ask for His power in repentance, the body can come together, give glory to GOD, and show the world GOD’s intended agape love. Hope I’m readin’ you guys right, there were some very interesting points made.
grace and peace
geoff B
Good post Michael. I also, in my sectarian years, hung with a certain crowd – went on anti-…… demo’s, and primed myself for culture wars. Then I left the sect, and almost became a DW-groupie – but again, God forced me out of that too. One cannot allow oneself to become a groupie of any kind, if you are to have a faithful witness in this world. I’m not saying one should indulge in wishy-washy interdenominationalism (That is another kind of groupie), but one should live a Christ filled life, and befiriend whoever God brings across your path.
BTW, the only Middle-Eastern looking Jesus at the top is the Orthdox icon in the middle – are you telling us something ;) ?
It’s insulting and downright condescending not just to me, but to the very spiritually enriching friendships I’ve had with my female friends in the past, and yet they don’t see it because in their insulated Christian experience they’re taught right out of the “Christian Romance Novel” playbook of interpersonal relationships and have learned to accept it whole-heartedly. — Rampancy
“Christian Romance Novel Playbook”? I belong to two Christian genre fiction writers’ lists, and “Christian Romance Novel” usually means “Boy Meets Girl, Girl Witnesses to Boy, Boy Walks Aisle And Says Magic Words (with much weeping) in Altar Call Ending”. Amish bonnets optional.
I’ve seen so many Christians refuse to leave the comfortable places in the Ghetto, instead of engaging the outside world, strengthening themselves from its many challenges and growing from its many places of meaningfulness. It just makes me so sad. — Rampancy
A lot of Christians want to stay comfortable in their four-walls-of-their-church, 6000-year-old “punyverse” instead of stepping out into the grand Universe out there. (My writing partner — a burned-out country preacher — has actually been told flat-out that his only function is “to keep us Comfortable until our Homegoing”. It’s like The Truman Show if Truman stayed in the giant sound stage forever.
Never mind that of the three Abrahamic monotheisms, Christianity should be the best able to handle a 13.7-gigayear-old, 10+ kiloparsec-across universe. The Incarnation means no matter how big the cosmos or God gets, God still remains on a one-to-one human scale in Christ.