Culture of Disrespect

CultureOfDisrespect

American intellectuals are moving from benign neglect to active opposition to Christian ideas.

American intellectuals have moved beyond the “Culture of Disbelief’ as Stephen Carter termed it in his book of that name. With Christians and Christian ideas increasingly relegated to the margins, we have entered a new and more troubling phase—the culture of disrespect. This movement from benign neglect to active opposition, hostility, and discrimination is being played out in academia, the business world, and government. With few exceptions, orthodox Christian ideas are met with discrimination and perfunctory dismissal.

Speaking to a group of scholars recently, George Marsden, an evangelical Protestant teaching at the University of Notre Dame, accused major universities of discriminating against scholarship that reflects religious, especially Christian, perspectives. “Unless the major universities change, they should add a footnote to the phrase in their catalogues announcing that they ‘welcome diverse perspectives.’ It should read: ‘Except, of course, religious perspectives.’ ”

Since the political correctness movement has woven its way into the power structures of American society, we can no longer avoid trouble simply by proselytizing and keeping fervently held Christian convictions to ourselves.

TWO TEMPTATIONS

Christians are most vulnerable to two postmodern temptations: believing PC rhetoric and then practicing a diluted form of it.

For example, some within the church believe evangelism is outmoded and unnecessary in a culturally diverse society. They have been drawn into the notion that tolerance means leveling those differences that genuinely and appropriately separate peoples. Rather than risk offending a neighbor or an entire foreign nation, they have allowed their outreach and missionary programs to atrophy. The gospel is rendered inoffensive when Christians transform themselves into another special-interest group, working in their own small way to make a better world for everyone.

Among evangelicals, a poorer cousin of political correctness is at work. Some in our subculture seek to silence or openly ridicule the unpopular views of fellow believers, most notably those who espouse positions relating to women in ministry, the role of minorities in church leadership, specific gifts of the Spirit, or the use of modern methods in evangelism and church growth. The tragedy of this is the same as PC’s effect on university campuses: genuine dialogue and true learning cannot take place when some of the participants are discredited and muzzled. There is no longer a place for respectful disagreement.

IF NOT PC, THEN WHAT?

Where, then, is the Christian foil to those driven by politically correct thinking? It is not enough for Christians simply to secure their own constitutional rights through the courts. And it is certainly not in the spirit of Christ to engage in the bruising politics of raw power. These are mere mirrors, not Christian alternatives, to political correctness.

As president of a Christian college, I have fantasized putting up a sign on our campus: “Warning! This is not a politically correct campus.” But that’s too negative. Perhaps the sign should read: “Biblically correct campus. Proceed with caution.” Unfortunately, that sounds just as arrogant, elitist, and smug as the rest.

So, forget the signs. If we are not politically correct, what are we? Rather than being consumed or co-opted by the PC movement, Christians ought to strive to be more biblically guided than politically correct. The differences are significant:

A politically correct person encourages making “religion something that should be believed in privacy, not something that should be paraded,” Stephen Carter contends. A biblically guided person attempts to apply Christian principles to society and culture, even when the most culturally sensitive efforts breed contempt in today’s political climate.

A politically correct mindset smacks of indoctrination; the biblically guided mindset creates an atmosphere in which truth may be pursued unfettered by any preconceived formulation.

The politically correct philosophy accepts and encourages many forms of sexual expression. The biblically guided view honors celibacy before marriage and encourages heterosexual expression of love within the commitments, nurture, and safety of marriage.

Politically correct Christians stifle legitimate viewpoints worthy of study and discussion. Biblically guided Christians explore all aspects of contemporary life through the lens of Scripture with a spirit of love.

We should never be surprised at any effort to silence the gospel, which is the eventual effect of the PC mentality. At the same time, we must examine our own tendencies not only to be accepted by those outside the church, but also to force those within the church into silence when they disagree with someone’s narrow grid for interpreting biblical truth. Only by personally and corporately internalizing biblical principles as our guide can we hope to effectively encounter our culture.

By R. Judson Carlberg, president of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.

Beyond Tribal Europe

Americans commonly think of Europe as one entity. In reality, there are many Europes. It has been a deeply divided continent for the greater part of this century.

How many countries are there today in Europe? If you know today, you may not know next week. Twenty-one new countries have come into existence since the 1989–91 changes and the collapse of the former socialist federal empires.

One of the most important geographical words to learn about Europe is the word former. Now it is the former Yugoslavia and former Soviet Union, former Czechoslovakia, former East Germany, former Leningrad, and many more thousands of formers as cities, streets, and institutions that were named after the heroes of Marxism have already been or are being changed.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 did not solve all our problems. Europe has been divided in many ways other than in its politics. Europe is religiously divided. Most of central and northern Europe claims to be Protestant. Most of southern Europe, Austria, and Poland is Roman Catholic. Most of Eastern Europe is Eastern Orthodox.

At present, Eastern Europe is going through a very painful and bloody transition. When the Communists in power saw what was happening in 1989, they very quickly changed the names of their parties from Communist to Socialist to Social Democrats to become more palatable in the initial democratic processes. But they retained their old mindset.

Metanoia, or a change of mindset, has been a missing element among Eastern European political leaders. A number of capitals in Eastern Europe have essentially the same people in power. They just changed labels. We have a saying in Croatia: “They changed from red to pink.”

When communism collapsed, whatever communism suppressed has now exploded. The two prime examples are nationalism and religion. Nationalism was suppressed by communism because Communists set out to build a new proletarian internationalism. Religion was suppressed because they wanted to build an atheistic society. With Communist pressure gone, the explosions of religion and nationalism are going hand in hand. The former national churches see themselves as preservers of national culture, national identity, the sense of nationhood, and strive to reclaim a monopoly on religious life. This combination of nationality, religion, culture, along with new political power, is dangerous. It inhibits the free development of democracy and human rights.

In the Bosnian conflict, the ethnic and religious elements do play an important role right now. But they did not in the beginning. They are being manipulated by the politicians.

Recently, a Russian Orthodox bishop said, “The Russian soul is Orthodox.” The talk is, if you are Russian, you are Orthodox. If you are Polish or Croatian, you are Catholic. If you are anything else, you are not a good citizen. The Christian face is defined along ethnic lines. One of the great tasks that we evangelicals have is to define what it means to be Christian.

We need to have a comprehensive global agenda in this ministry of reconciliation, not narrowed down to a country here and a country there, but a long-range, preventive strategy. We need to contribute to a climate of dialogue and development of democracy and peace if we want to be instruments of reconciliation in our world. As Christians, we cannot speak about reconciliation without speaking about the Cross.

It is extremely important in Eastern Europe to develop a nonsectarian ecclesiology. Pray and work for unity. Evangelize without proselytizing. This may sound unrealistic. But we should strive to help other believing Christians to renew their own church.

Christians should keep in theological balance all three biblical tenses of reconciliation: the past tense of what Christ accomplished on the Cross; the present tense of our call to be agents and ambassadors of reconciliation; the future tense of the cosmic eschatological kingdom.

DANCING TOWARD THE FUTURE

Finally, while working against apparently impossible odds, we must never give up hope. Hope energizes us for the action in the present. People think of hope as passive, as waiting for the Lord to come and snatch us out of this mess. However, Saint Augustine said hope has two daughters: Anger and Courage-anger with the way things are, and the courage to change them.

Someone passed on to me a favorite saying: “Hope is the ability to listen to the music of the future. Faith is the courage to dance to it in the present.” Do we have the courage to dance to that future’s music? That’s what reconciliation is all about.

By Peter Kuzmic, Evangelical Theological School, Osijek, Croatia; adapted from an address delivered at the World Vision Washington Forum.

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