I’m sure you have heard the term.  Coined first by right-of-center political types and since picked up by many evangelicals, it has the theme that all the values we have and the things we stand for are under attack in The U.S. and that it is urgent we fight back with zeal.  We are at war, so they say, and we must defend our values or they will disappear.  Some go so far as to say that America will “lose the blessing of God” based an assumption that America is divinely ordained in some special way to “stand for righteousness.”  It has reached a point where, in some circles, being an avowed Christian gives an implied sign that you are a “culture warrior.”

I have decided that I am a conscientious objector in the culture wars.  As with conscientious objectors down through the years, this may subject me to a certain amount of scorn and perhaps even the accusation that I am not truly evangelical.  For this reason I felt the need to give reasons why I have taken this stance.

  1. There is no evidence in Scripture that either Jesus or Paul, who lived in cultures far more hostile to the Gospel then ours, practiced, encouraged or endorsed cultural warfare.  I cannot come up with a reasonable explanation why this tactic is needed now.
  2. The theory behind cultural warfare is that political action is needed to produce or restore righteousness in our land.  Not only do I see no biblical support for this, it seems to be opposite the assertions of Jesus that righteousness flows from the inside out.
  3. It teaches us to fear, dislike, and oppose those who differ with us.  As these emotions are expressed, sometimes to the point of ridicule, they produce actions exactly opposite what I believe we are called to demonstrate.  The mandate we have is to love others and to sacrifice for them, not to beat them.
  4. It leads us to a lack of wisdom in choosing our battles and tactics in the real issue, the spiritual warfare we are really engaged in and the battle for lost souls.

There is one other issue that concerns me as well.  In the fractured media of today almost everyone gets news and information from a source they already agree with.  We, therefore, assume that these sources accurately reflect the real situation on the ground.  This is simply not true.

I’ve commented before how many people on “the other side” rarely actually know a Christian.  Well, we rarely know “the other side” too.  When we get to know abortion advocates, homosexuals, and political leftists on a one-on-one basis we can come to see them with a great deal more compassion and sympathy.  We can end up no longer repelled by their evilness but rather brokenhearted by their lostness.  And frankly, given the choice, that is where I’d rather be.