Christianity and the Church used to be very much part of our nation’s culture. I don’t mean to say that most Americans were Christians. They weren’t really Christians, but they were culturally Christians. Seventy-five years ago Most people were connected to a church, even if only nominally. In fact, almost half attended worship services fairly regularly. Almost everyone went to Church on Easter, at least. It was considered a good thing to ‘go to church’. Your average citizen, even if not very religious, was generally familiar with the narrative of Scripture—they knew who Moses was, and what the Exodus was all about; they knew that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday. They were familiar with such names as Gideon, Samuel, David, Peter and Paul. Churches were considered good things, and clergy were generally esteemed as moral leaders in the community. Prayer was normal. Invoking God in public settings was normal. Atheism was deeply suspect, and the public mocking of Christianity was rare.
The moral fabric of society too conformed very closely to the moral teachings of the various churches, and the moral teachings of the different denominations were largely indistinguishable one from another. Marriage as preached inside the Church (even liberal churches) was similarly understood and practiced outside the Church. In fact, the churches were considered moral authorities. Illicit sex was not at all uncommon, but it was kept hidden as best as possible, and certainly not flaunted or celebrated. Repentance, forgiveness and humility were positive values. In those days the ethical requirements of being a decent citizen were compatible with the serious practice of Christianity, if perhaps a rather pale and unworthy version of it.
In those days no great cognitive dissonance arose with a genuine belief and practice of Christianity. In large part, rank and file citizens valued—or at least said they did—the same things serious Christians did, only they did so less seriously. They prayed some, while serious Christians prayed more. They worshipped God some, while serious Christians worshipped more. And perhaps—and I emphasize perhaps—the serious Christian was somewhat more morally conscientious, although in truth there were many counterexamples.
To summarize, then, seventy-five years ago there was no great cultural divide between genuine believers and the rest of society. There was a great spiritual divide, to be sure, but if you were not a serious Christian you probably didn’t notice that.
Today, American culture is far less Christian in flavor or appearance than once upon a time, such that the divide between the typical citizen and the serious Christian cannot go unnoticed. The change did not happen all at once. American culture in the sixties and seventies—and even the eighties—still bore the sheen of Traditional Christianity, but it was dimming. And the dimming of it was accelerating, to the point now where the influence of Traditional Christianity on the larger culture seems all but gone. Rather than address the causes of this transformation, or try to identify watershed moments in the decline of cultural Christianity, let us just accept that the relationship between the serious Christian and the average citizen is no longer what it once was. One is no longer a pale and generic version of the other. They are different creatures. They live in different worlds, speak different languages, and seek and value radically different things.
The Traditional Church is no longer a cultural institution. Rather, it has become counter-cultural. Taking Christianity seriously, and the Church seriously, now places a person seriously outside the mainstream of our current culture. Belief in one true religion, in Christ as the sole Savior of all, as the sole judge of the living and the dead, belief in the institutional church as the only bearer of truth about God and His Will, in the sanctity of all human life, in the restriction of sex to life-long marriage and life-long marriage to people of the opposite sex, and many other such things, are completely unacceptable in various corners of our society today. The precepts of multi-culturalism and of diversity, equity and inclusion condemn many traditional Christian beliefs as divisive, bigoted, hateful, backwards, ignorant, and the like. The feeling is mutual. The serious Christian condemns many of the precepts of multi-culturalism and of diversity, equity and inclusion as well, as absurd, hare-brained, utopian, foolish, utterly destructive of a good society and common sense, and even blasphemous.
It’s not so easy any more to have a foot in each camp, that is, to be a seriously spiritual person who nevertheless gets along and participates, at least outwardly, with the larger culture, or to be a member in good standing with the secular society and yet not be uncomfortable with Church doctrines and practices which are antithetical to that society. If you’re all in on one side of the divide, you’re likely all out on the other. The only other alternative seems to be to remain uncommitted everywhere.
James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas
First Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) 