Tag: culture

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We’re All Missionaries Now, Baby

By Amy Spiegel

We’re back from our Christmas Break trip, and I am feeling like my soul could use a morality shower. Not having TV at home, it is always a bit of a shock to the system to see what is pouring into people’s homes for hours each day. It used to be that I worried when the boys watched the Disney Channel, hating the casually crude language not to mention the constant focus on romance and the aesthetically anemic content. Flipping through the channels now, I worry about the foul language, nudity and progressivist social agenda.

Television is not, of course, a mirror, exactly representing our society’s moral image. I hope, at least, that the values portrayed in sitcoms and “reality” shows are not those of my neighbors and friends. However, with the average American watching almost seven hours a day, it can’t help but have a severe impact. It’s less a looking glass and more of a prophetic picture of where we are headed.

Jim and I have always strived to be thoughtful regarding our family’s interactions with pop culture. I wouldn’t say we are entirely conservative which, for me, brings to mind a suspension of the arts in general. I suspect that some of the things we have allowed our kids to read and listen to might disturb James Dobson. (Just to clarify, I am talking Harry Potter and The Killers). We generally evaluate things from an aesthetic as well as a moral viewpoint. Therefore, our children are a strange mix of conservative (they are forbidden to watch SpongeBob because I am certain it makes you stupid) and adventurous (they love Josh Ritter). I have always seen us as occasionally stepping out of the mainstream of pop culture while remaining part of the general flow. That is, until now.

Over the last few weeks, when confronted with what passes for entertainment in our society today, I can’t see how any American Christian family could see themselves as anything else but serving in the mission field of a lost and pagan land. Maybe it is a symptom of the modern evangelical view of missions that we have ever considered ourselves anything but missionaries. How might our perspective on everyday life change if we started thinking of ourselves as strangers in a strange land rather than as natives?

1) If you were living in a foreign country, chances are you wouldn’t understand the native tongue and therefore wouldn’t waste your time watching television. News Bulletin: You either don’t or shouldn’t speak the language of a lot of TV today. Turn it off and read a book. Not only will you be guarding your soul, you will be doing something good for your mind. Just make sure you read a good book. If you do watch TV, be sure not to leave your brain behind while you zone out on the couch. There is no neutral when it comes to what you consume. I am a fan of a few shows, but I try to treat the experience as a cross-cultural experiment rather than pure entertainment.

2) If you moved halfway across the world to show people the love of Jesus and tell them about the Bible, you probably wouldn’t hide in your house all the time or avoid talking about spiritual things once you got there. I confess I am a total coward when it comes to talking about God with nonbelievers. But it’s our job whether we send out support letters or not, so we’d better stop thinking about how comfortable it makes us feel and take it seriously.

3) Remember that disciple-making starts at home. If we are impacted by the immoral tsunami that washes across our shore each day, just think about what it is doing to our kids. One of the easiest ways to do this is just by making them aware of their alien status and teaching them to see the difference between the water and dry land. And if there is no avoiding the water, we can at least teach them to swim.

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Turning the Cultural Tide

By Amy Spiegel

Anyone who has spent any length of time with me—like let’s say more than five minutes—will be able to tell you that being counter-cultural is something that I am very comfortable with. In fact, to go with the flow often feels more unnatural than going against it. However, there is always that point when the tide turns, so to speak, and you go so hard against the grain that you give yourself (and often those around you) a giant and painful splinter. So where is that line to be found?

A few years back, Jim and I were visiting the upscale suburb of Detroit in which Jim was raised, before it was quite so upscale. After enjoying the beautiful playground and charming downtown, we were discussing what it would be like to raise a family in an area so different from the small town setting in which we live. We came to the conclusion that it would be nearly impossible to raise our kids in such an environment unless we saw ourselves basically as missionaries. There the kids were swimming in pools that cost more than our house! What would they think of our kids who have holes in most of their jeans and swim in a dirty, but delightful, pond all summer long!

There are lots of ways our family is counter-cultural, even in the economically and socially conservative area in which we live. We don’t have cable, or any channels for that matter. Our kids have to duke it out over who gets to choose the next Netflix or check out movies from the library to get their TV entertainment. We are a Wii-less and non-X-boxed family. We drive very used cars and pass down shoes from one kid to the next. Even the size of our family exceeds most of those we know. Still, we spend more than we should and buy what we don’t really need. There are families, of course, who are more frugal or more indulgent than we are. But Jim and I do strive to question the decisions that we make and repeatedly ask ourselves, “Is this something we should do? Or is this something we are told we should do?”

Some of our decisions make life easier and simpler but some can make life less comfortable and awkward. Sometimes we have made concessions to cultural norms that have left us feeling a bit unsettled. We have horrible Internet service and a computer that moves slower than grass grows. In moments of frustration, I have wondered what would it look like just to get rid of the computer in our home altogether. What would it be like to be email-less in our society? A few years back we were without cell phones and quite happy to be so. Now I confess to having fully embraced not only my phone but texting as well. What would it be like to not have to shush my kids so I could make a few calls in the car? I have often longed to pack up the kids and be the 21st century’s Wilderness Family—though with better clothes and fewer bear attacks—or to circle the wagons and start my own little commune of like-minded, bread-making, truly wireless folk. As appealing as the idea sounds, I fear that is the coward’s way out, at least for now. Staying in the fight and pushing against the cultural tides is what we are called to do and is what makes us firmer in our convictions.

On a recent daytime trip to Target (we aren’t too counter-cultural not to worship at the house of the big red circle), my frustration with the kids was increased by noting that none of the moms around me were trying to corral four hungry and impatient children. I was surrounded by moms whose kids were apparently in school, and if a school bus had come cruising by, I might have been tempted to throw a few of mine aboard. Just when I was reaching my breaking point, I caught the eye of a similarly situated mom, surrounded by a brood of similarly school-aged and impatient children. We smiled encouragingly to one another and as I walked past I cheered us both on with a battle cry to the effect of “We can do it, sister!” In our fight against the tide, it isn’t just our principles that anchor us against the current, it is one another. Maybe in doing so, we can create a cultural trend of our own and turn the tide in our own small way.

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Theological Roadtrippin’

By Amy Spiegel

In picking up Ed Cyzewski’s new book Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life, I had many different expectations. Ed, Jim and I had exchanged several e-mails and I greatly appreciated Ed’s style and humor. I was looking forward to my first nonfiction read in a while and happily accepted Ed’s request for Wisdom & Folly to be included on his blog tour. What I didn’t expect was a cross-cultural experience.

One of my most convicting and enlightening experiences occurred immediately after I graduated from college. Why is it, by the way, those two so often road trip together? Just once I would love to have Enlightenment show up on my doorstep unexpectedly and say “Hey, I thought I would leave Conviction sleeping on the couch this time. How about some mind-blowing insights, just you and me?” Anyway, what was I saying? Ah, yes-mind-stretching and self-mortifying experience. I embarked on an overseas missions trip with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship to Ukraine. I can’t really say why I went on this trip (it certainly wasn’t for any of the reasons one should), but I definitely learned a lot from it. I had traveled overseas before, but more as a sightseer and general laborer, never in a one on one situation, day in day out. Frankly, it was exhausting. As the days stretched on and I felt myself being drained of what little spiritual energy I had at the time, I found myself clinging more and more to anything American. I drank Diet Coke at every opportunity, gobbled candy bars like there was no tomorrow and wept at the sight of the American delegation making its way into the Olympics. I didn’t want to share my precious symbols of home with anyone, which very much went against the communal mindset of the Ukrainians. I was happy to buy you your own, but keep your distance from my Snickers, okay comrade? One day two friends and I had had enough of the boiled beets and hot tea for lunch and headed to the nearby village with visions of pizza dancing before our eyes. As we neared the village, our faithful leader came thundering down the path to stop us. We had unintentionally offended our Ukrainian friends by shunning the prepared food and showing off our ability to buy an alternative. With great embarrassment and not a little righteous indignation, we returned to eat lunch with the rest of the group. (I believe humble pie was on the menu that day.) It was then that I began to reflect on just how ingrained certain values were to me as an American: independence, individualism and consumerism, to name a few. Not all bad in the proper context, but they nonetheless placed me in a certain context both culturally and economically. If I wanted to minister to these students I had traveled so far to meet, I was going to have to check some of these values like luggage at the gate, knowing I might never see them again.

This is the challenge that Ed Cyzewski gently but forcefully issues in Coffehouse Theology. If we are to attempt to understand God and his inspired word, the Bible, we must understand ourselves and the context in which we live, because our biases and cultural beliefs form a lens through which we see the world and the scriptures. As Ed puts it “Once we understand where we come from and who we are, we can then step into the important task of knowing God through Christian theology.” For me, just as with my experience overseas, this book was an opportunity to be challenged by a different perspective and come to understand myself as well as others more clearly. I didn’t always agree with Ed, but I could certainly appreciate where he was coming from and also appreciate the magnanimous spirit with which he presents all sides of important debates. As Ed says, he isn’t so much interested in convincing you one way or another, but rather opening a healthy dialogue, and he does just this with a light and humble touch. (Plus, I must add, I greatly appreciated his somewhat random cultural references and the use of parentheticals.)  I would definitely recommend Coffeehouse Theology to anyone interested in theology as a way of better understanding God in everyday life and especially within our postmodern context. Within its pages, you just might find Enlightenment hanging out all by his lonesome, ready to go wherever the road might take you.

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Culturally Liberal and Morally Conservative

By Jim Spiegel

The recent discussion of gay marriage (see my October 2 post and related comments) has reminded me once again how difficult it is to be both culturally liberal and morally conservative.  It seems that today most folks fall into one of these categories but not the other.  That is, people tend to be either culturally liberal or morally conservative.  By culturally liberal I mean someone who readily recognizes and aggressively pursues truth, goodness, and beauty in culture-from politics and higher learning to art forms such as film, literature, and popular music.  By contrast, a cultural conservative would be someone who does not share this inclination but rather is suspicious of culture and human creative expressions.  A parallel distinction can be made regarding a person’s moral sensibilities.  Moral liberals are those who readily embrace shifts in ethical standards, while moral conservatives are suspicious of such change.

Perhaps it is only natural that people tend to be liberal or conservative generally rather than according to context or subject matter.  That is, our tendency to be liberal or conservative is not isolated to particular areas or issues.  It’s no coincidence that the artistic centers of our culture, from Hollywood and Broadway to art institutes and MTV, are also the most morally liberal communities.  And it’s also not coincidental that the most morally conservative communities tend to have little interest in the arts.  Similarly, the press and media, as well as the most prestigious centers of learning tend to be liberal, while people from the most morally conservative faith traditions are those who are least likely to run in these cultural circles.

Now these are very general observations, I know.  But these tendencies should be obvious enough to all of us.  I consider it to be a tragic trend, as it is the timeless moral truths which made American culture possible in the first place and which will sustain it as long as it lasts.  While it is appropriate to question or reject artistic norms and institutional conventions, moral verities such as the sanctity of human life and sexuality cannot be rejected without devastating repercussions, both in individual lives and culture at large.

So the noble challenge, as I see it, is to vigorously explore the arts and other aspects of contemporary culture while maintaining one’s ethical moorings; to remain committed to abiding ethical principles without sacrificing the will to eagerly pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in human creations-in short, to be a cultural liberal and a moral conservative.  It’s a challenge because somehow, at least at this time in our history, it is unnatural.  And it’s a noble challenge because it is for our own good-both as individuals and as a society.