Our pastor just wrapped up a series called "Rebuilding a Church Without Walls". The final teaching was about how Christianity is not bound to a culture. Us Christians in the west sometimes think we need to bring our brand of Christianity to the world. Our pastor just got back from Nepal and Bhutan. It's obviously a time where it can help you figure out what is important.
I think one think I want to communicate is that Christianity isn't about being a Republican, Democrat, American, your clothing, culture or anything else. The only barrier to becoming a Christian is dealing with the cross of Christ. It doesn't matter your background, culture, country or political leanings but who is Christ to you. It's mind blowing that people all over the world pray to the same God that I pray to. They do it in their own way (and probably a lot more than I do) but through Christ they (like me) have fellowship with the God of the universe.
Now, I do believe my faith does influence my politics but there are liberal Christians and conservative atheists. One thing I will not get dogmatic about is that you must be a conservative if your are a Christian. I'm reading a new book by a left-wing Christian named Tony Campolo. The book is called "Speaking My Mind: The Radical Evangelical Prophet Tackles the Tough Issues Christians Are Afraid to Face" and is a challenge to me. As conservative Christians we must always come together with our liberal bothers and sisters at the cross.
As talk of people of faith making demands of the Republican party start to come about I'm getting concerned about the focus of evangelicals. We need to focus on the work of Christ. Yes, politics is important but we cannot take an entitlement point of view and take our ball and go home if we don't get our way. Let's not associate Christianity with politics. Let's try and influence our government but keep the church organizations out of it. I want to see the Church win the world to Christ, save Africa from AIDS, feed the poor and love the unlovable. I want to see our political parties defend our country, keep the oceans clean, protect marriage, protect life, run schools that emphasize learning, administor fair justice and spend tax-payer money wisely. None of the political points I'm making are religious in nature and are really not the job of the Church. Now, Christians (and everyone else) should be informed and vote according to what they believe is the correct party to handle to political and moral issues facing us. BTW, moral issues are not just religious in nature. Everyone has moral standards and those should influence our votes.
I'm hopeful that the western Church will be open to where God wants to take us and that our "ideas" of Christianity won't get in the way.
Posted by Tim at November 15, 2004 05:37 AMChristianity is not western? Gee, you just recognized the millions of Russian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox in India, Filippino Catholics and Korean Presbytirians might be Christian...
However, Francis Fukuyama in his book "Trust", mentions how westernized Protestantim is associated with renewing cultures to welcome globalization.
In the Philippines, my stepson is promoting a secular strict morality to try to decrease corruption. The base who welcomes this are the protestants, LDS, and Iglesia de Cristo churches, but the stricter Catholic renewal groups also welcome it. This renewal is actually "western" Christianity.
(Traditional filippino Catholics would see stealing from an employer as moral, i.e. as "borrowing" from a relative, since the traditional relationship of work is placed in a medieval extended family concept. However, with large factories, this idea degenerates into massive theft of a comapany's assets).
So yes, Christianty is not western.
The medieval/Catholic/ family idea of Christianity (as opposed to protestant/secular/individual Christianity) has many virtues. Filippinos personally will feed poor people and support huge extended families. So welfare is done by families and by churches, not by secular government...
But with globalization, such medieval societies are crumbling and degenerating...
And it is western Christian culture that is more attuned to renew a dying/corrupt Christian medieval culture than earlier versions. (the alternative is chaos and Marxism or radical Islam)...
There are definitely significant influcences of Christianity upon western culture, not to be lightly dismissed. "Western civilization" might be a better term, and its origins are commonly traced to Christianity, Greek philosophy, and Roman thought. "Eastern civilization", in contrast, has its origins in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. While Christianity has a more direct and overt influence in many aspects of the western cultures, that does not necessarily mean one culture is "better" than another. What I would like to find out is what Asian culture would look like if it were to have stronger Christian influence.
Posted by: djchuang at November 19, 2004 02:34 PM
