Contemplating Identity: Culture Wars

Our cultural identity, which includes things like race, nationality, religion, language, gender, age, political affiliation, social class, and various shared social norms, is often impossible to separate from our self identity. Particularly for those who grew up in a monolithic cultural setting, it can be incredibly hard to see any value or logic in any other cultural lens besides our own. Anyone who has viewed the comment section of an online opinion article has witnessed the inevitable clash of culture that occurs when people are reduced to their ideas or demographic.

All of our cultural divides, between young and old, rural and urban, conservative and progressive, etc., play out in the endless culture wars that showcase our inability to see beyond our own cultural identity. "Back in my day" or "where I come from" allude to a simpler, yet illusory, time when everyone shared the same values. Rather than witness the evolving flow of cultural change, with its inevitable growing pains, many prefer to dig in their heels and condemn any efforts towards creating a more culturally inclusive world. The strength and wisdom these various cultures could provide in cooperation is often cut short by their own egos and self-interest.

"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures." - Cesar Chavez

While plenty of battles are fought over ideological differences, religious ideology seems to amplify these conflicts to an extreme level. Ever since Christianity become a political force in the 4th century under the converted Roman emperor Constantine, the church has been lured into the temptation to convert through coercion rather than the non-violent path of love modeled by Jesus. At its worst, Christianity has ignored the call to "love your neighbor" and instead turned every non-Christian into an enemy to be defeated. At its best, Christianity offers an identity that transcends human distinctions and where "love your enemy" erases the category of "enemy" altogether.

Though the biblical narrative is centered on a specific group of people, the Israelites, the story begins and ends on a cosmic scope with creation united in harmony. While the Israelites had their own cultural identity that came into conflict with neighboring groups, the biblical narrative as a whole is a story of how God uses one group to invite the whole world back into harmony through an identity that transcends their particular cultural boundaries. The Hebrew Bible contains multiple stories of non-Israelites who blurred the cultural lines of the Israelites. The early church also had to face this issue as they expanded outside of their Jewish origins. Cultural identity markers like circumcision and food restrictions were not imposed on other cultures seeking to join this new community. The Kingdom of God preached by Jesus was a multicultural community, not a monolithic community. The identifying marker for the early church was inclusive love. Only those who unremorsefully threatened that harmony were sent away to live in their preferred isolation.

Today, the self-appointed gatekeepers of the church defend a cultural identity that hardly resembles the early church. The non-violent, transnational, and collective identity of the early church is too often substituted with an aggressive, nationalistic, and individualistic counterfeit. Bible verses are cherry-picked and weaponized with little care for their original meaning and context to exclude people who don't fit the modern manufactured church culture. Unfortunately, few in the church can even tell the difference. After all, this is how church was "back in my day".

While the state of modern Christianity is bleak, I don't think that all hope is lost. I know many Christian communities who practice inclusive love and have no barriers (neither explicit nor implicit) to participation and leadership based on ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. These diverse communities offer a glimpse of heaven that transcends our human categories. Instead of imposing our own criteria for who belongs and who doesn't, these communities allow the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and moderation) to be the standard for which we offer each other a safe and inclusive community.

Christians often claim that the church is to be "counter-cultural", but in practice this usually results in one dominate culture being elevated as superior and placed in opposition to others. Perhaps a better word and goal for the church would be a transcultural community. In this type of space, we can acknowledge our particular cultural identity while also not being limited or blinded by it. We can celebrate the unique expressions of humanity that we are while also celebrating the divine life that unites us and transcends our individual identity.

My brothers and sisters, do you, with your acts of favoritism, really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in; and you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?... You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." Mercy triumphs over judgment. - James 2: 1-4, 8-9