Why "Culture War" Language Harms the Gospel

War is a topic with no end to its ability to inflame the human imagination. It is the basis for countless books, movies, plays, songs, and video games. It is even the basis for many biblical metaphors about courage (1 Cor. 16:13), the constancy of death (Eccles. 8:8), spiritual confidence (Ps. 27:1-3), and even faith (1 Tim. 1:18-19).  It figures strongly in modern proverbial language - "All is fair in love and war." (By the way, it's not.)

American war poster from WWI [1]

In recent decades, war has been revived by many Christians as a way of framing the cultural conflict between the historical Judeo-Christian worldview of the United States and the relatively recent encroachment of secularism and scientism. Clinging to an old sense of Manifest Destiny, many fear that God's country is being lost to an axis of evil--communists, socialists, atheists, New Age humanists, liberals, and Muslims.

For many Christians, what might have been characterized as an ever-growing, pluralistic marketplace of ideas in a fallen world has escalated into a full-on "culture war" of us versus them. The problem is that "culture war," like a grenade, is packed with tremendous power. This semantic power, I think, has come to be used thoughtlessly, without the spiritual wisdom with which the Bible's authors wielded the same language. What is needed is a Christian theology of cultural engagement.

The problem with "culture war" language

Overstating the "culture war" leads to a number of un-Christian semantic implications:

First, "culture war" implies that other people are the enemy against whom we must fight. There are certainly individuals who oppose the Kingdom of God (such as the "New Atheists"), but they are not the enemy. As the Apostle Paul writes, "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." [2] (Eph. 6:12, NIV) While fellow human beings might be the earthly face of the opposition, there are ugly spiritual forces that stand behind them--forces that victimize their willing and corrupted souls by turning them against the truth of God.

Secondly, "culture war" fosters a sort of Christian naturalism, which ignores the spiritual reality of the battle. The brutal this-worldliness of the fight blinds us to the invisible, but much more substantial, reality of the spirits that inject bad ideas into human minds, like a deadly virus. (2 Cor. 4:4) Filling the mind with lies was Satan's tactic from the very beginning, with Eve. There is no question that our deceitful and lustful hearts are willing participants, but they are hearts that need healing and rescue, rather than cultural thrashing.

Third, as in any war, the "culture war" fosters a self-righteous us-versus-them mentality. We are the righteous, and they are the enemy. The Scriptures, however, tell us that "there is no one righteous, not even one..." (Romans 3:9-18, NIV) Christians are positionally sanctified before God only by his grace--they are not actually holy yet. It is strictly the imputed righteousness of Christ, laid upon the believer, that makes the believer holy. (Romans 4:5) Ontologically (in our actual being, that is), there is no difference between believers and non-believers. Christians are not holy mercenaries sent on jihad to destroy all that opposes the kingdom of God. Christians are more like special operatives sent into enemy territory to rescue those who are captive to the world. This was Jesus' model.

What did Jesus do?

Standing bloodied, beaten, and accused before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36, NIV) Even in the face of certain death, Jesus minimized his fightin' words. Why? Because Jesus loved those who threatened to kill him. His mission was not one of war against the evil and perverted enemies, but it was a rescue mission into enemy territory. It is in the enemy territory of this world, with its corrupted philosophies and ideas, that the lost sheep are held captive. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came to set them free.

Conclusion:

The competition of ideas is not a war against unbelievers; rather, it is a rescue mission in enemy occupied territory, and Christians are the rescuers. We need Christians to penetrate all levels of our culture in order to expose the darkness found there to the light of the Gospel. We need Christian educators, artists, politicians, writers, actors, academics, researchers, engineers, athletes, laborers, caregivers, and philosophers.

Christians should not be motivated to learn for the sake of fighting. They should pursue knowledge and learning for the sake of the lost who are caught in the world's trappings and its false philosophies. "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor. 10:3-5, NIV)

Christians must pursue excellence in knowledge and skill as a means of exposing the false and destructive ideologies that hold our neighbors captive. By destroying these "strongholds", Christ may set free those trapped within. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennet (the "New Atheists") are not the enemies; they are sinners just like us who have not yet come to a knowledge of Christ.  Perhaps they never will, but that is between them and God. We must cast the seeds of the Gospel boldly and in whatever language or jargon they can understand. What kind of soil they are is up to the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 13:1-23)

As Jesus said to one of his followers, put down your sword. (Matthew 26:52) [3]

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[1] This is an American war poster from World War I. A common way of waging war is to convince your own citizens that the enemy is subhuman. In this case, the gorilla represents the German enemy. Interestingly, he wields a club labeled "Kultur".
[2] "Rulers", "authorities", "powers", and "spiritual forces" designate demonic and Satanic forces.
[3] For the record, when it comes to fighting actual wars, I'm not a pacifist. I believe that there may be an occasion in which justice demands an act of war. My commentary is limited to the so called "culture war" of ideas.