Photo by Hennie Stander on Unsplash
The stories most of our cultures are telling us right now—which we see played out in our politics—consist of corruption, backwardness, fear, and massive confusion about identity. Evil is pernicious. And today, it has gradually worn down the hope and vitality of many people. Reactions to it have varied from anger and activism, to detachment, withdrawal, or self-isolation.
But there are better stories available to us.
Right now, it feels as if corruption is everywhere and has hit some sort of zenith. The world has always had corruption, of course, and history is littered with it. In South Africa, when I was driving about once a week through the city of Johannesburg (for some years) it was often put out in open display for me. The roads were full of pot holes, litter everywhere, traffic rules merely suggestions. I was once the victim of a bus which scraped the entire back of my car because I was stuck in an intersection because the oncoming lane was filled with cars going the wrong way. Buildings were stripped of almost anything valuable inside and outside, windows were smashed, and poverty abounded. I would often see women walk around half-dressed in next to rags, while opportunistic men gawked.Being exposed to this sort of thing regularly does something to you—never mind if you're living in it. It certainly challenged my theology, which I like to keep hopeful. Driving back to my suburb one day, I noticed a huge pile of trash and sand mixed together (it was as high as the house it was next to). Parts of the trash were on fire, burning with that slow, low-heat chemical flame only trash seems to create. And young children were playing on it.
This is a city of 5.6 million (that’s the city itself, not the entire metropolis).
These gloomy scenes often point to a sort-of mindset that appears to have given up on hope. But it's not like that with everyone. After seeing the children playing in the fire, I saw another man sweeping the hard, dry, compact sand that made up his front garden, picking up some trash and keeping things tidy. Here is a man with a different mindset.
Some suburbs and areas of Johannesburg are wonderful, of course. Mine was relatively nice. We had a great view of a small mountain, and things were relatively safe. Yet down the road from my house was a bridge where homeless people live, either sleeping or brushing their teeth and spitting onto the sidewalk. Litter gathered in the storm drains regularly. The river that flows through the suburb was so dirty and full of litter that when my kids and I would have a walk and they wanted to do normal stuff like throw stones into it, I would cringe when the water would splash and hit me or them in the face. This was a middle-class suburb.
Throughout my years in Johannesburg, as I saw the city get comparatively worse, I was plagued with this question: Will renewal come? I hoped for it for twenty years and I still hope for it. I did what I think I could to help bring it about. My church was active in communities across the city, and I was one of its leaders, which is why I would travel in and out of the city regularly. We did wonderful things for people to help bring some change—if not for everyone, at least for those we could. But it never seemed to be enough. I would often get depressed when, after creating a wonderful building for our church where people could come and get coffee, spiritual nourishment, and find a community, we would have our doors smashed in, things stolen, and even the flies generating from the urine (and other things) on the street would invade our building by the droves during summer. Here we are, working for change, and yet it isn't enough to change the city.
We seem to have a big Story problem. If this weren’t so, people would take action. Will renewal come? Even more, I would ask, why is the culture of my country not changing so that it moves forward into human flourishing? Especially after all the work so many are putting in. I’ve wondered how a nation that apparently shares my faith (something like a 79% Christian population) can be so corrupt. It’s not just the government, it’s also all over so much of our business world, and down to the (often man) in the street who will try cheat you out of some money today.
What Story is my culture telling itself?
What are the stories we’re subscribing to that drive our lives? One of these in South Africa is the story of politics—that the “government”, the “Party” and the “politicians” should be cleaning things up. The uselessness of such a story (and how it develops, especially with liberation histories like my one) is perhaps for another post. But the (existential?) angst of seeing corruption with no visible, tangible transformation is exceptionally tiresome, especially for an idealist like myself, who wants to walk in a beautiful city and find God in it. Where God is, I believe, we will be inspired, safe, able to live purposeful and fulfilling lives, and have shame, guilt, and the past dealt with.I think of those kids playing in the burning heap of trash and I think of the lyrics of a song I would sing with passion and conviction in church:
When I would sing that song I would imagine children dancing in the streets 'upon injustice', safe and full of joy. I would imagine my own kids being able to play in the streets without ever having to worry about what someone would do to them. I believed that the good news of Jesus that I taught, that deals with guilt and shame and the human problem of evil and sin more than any other philosophy or religious idea I have encountered, would transform people and through transforming them, transform our cultures, our cities, our towns, our nation, our future.
But yet, the harder we seemed to work at this, the greater corruption seemed to surround us. This was incredibly difficult for me to parse. Was I wrong? In essence, I think yes. It's not that my positivity and hope were wrong, it's my expectations of the how that, I think, have been misplaced.
The Story pervasive in South Africa's culture echoes, in many ways, the story of the world right now. It is the reductive story of economical progress at the cost of all else. The liberation party of South Africa only ever speaks in terms of economics—what it will do to "create jobs" (which it is incapable of doing) and so forth. It only thinks in terms of economics, which is why it is so corrupt and the money always disappears. In many ways, the government of South Africa operates on a massive poverty mindset, without much ability to think about how their actions effect even their own future.
But South Africa is not alone in this reductive thinking. Look at our world powers. China is driven by economic concerns above all else. America mostly judges its presidents purely on how the economy is looking (and not on character) or (on the Left) how that president is creating a more 'equitable' economy.
Both capitalism and socialism make a fundamental assumption: that the answer to the world's problems is economical; that economics lies at the core of the human struggle. This was Marx's thesis, and I dare to say we have all believed it.
Most people assume that the answer to poverty lies in money. It's a very utilitarian way of thinking (the way we judge whether something is good and bad is by the outcomes produced; and what is good is what produces the greatest good for the greatest number)—and to be quite honest I think that the pervasive acceptance of utilitarian ethics as the way to order our societies has landed us in hot water now. I am not saying that economics is not important, I am saying it is not everything. Rather, poverty is driven by a spiritual problem—a particular way of viewing the world; a particular way of acting in response to that view.
The Kingdom here, but not all here
In the Bible, Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God as having come to earth in Him (Luke 17:21) and that this Kingdom changes everything. The Bible’s story tells us that this is a Kingdom of flourishing—the rule and reign of a God who promises to "make all things new" (Revelation 21:5), which appears to be something happening right now and to happen in fullness in the future. One of my favourite parables about the Kingdom is when Jesus likens it to being a mustard seed—the “smallest of all seeds” that grows to become a tree with branches so large that wild birds nest in its shade. (vs 30 - 32.) It starts small but eventually affects everything. Every small action we do has a massive effect on others and the future; and if we take the right actions collectively with faith in God, the future will be restful and flourishing.There are many ways in which Christian theology has seen this Kingdom coming in fullness. It has to do with a particular difficult portion of scripture in Revelation 20 that speaks of the "Millennium"—a golden age of flourishing on the earth. Few probably realise how this idea fuels Christian engagement in the world—whether that be a lack of engagement or an over-engagement in politics and the like.
How does culture change?
American Christianity has historically adopted two main approaches to the future and ushering in this golden age of the millennium, that very much provide some answers to why its politics looks like it does. So much of America's religious history has been framed by the Puritans, who largely adopted a revivalist point of view, especially in light of the first Great Awakening that swept America for ten years in 1730-1740. Many at the time thought this might have been the beginning of the Millennium, as people were turning to God in the hundreds of thousands all over the colonies.The second Great Awakening started in the late eighteenth century and lasted longer, to about the middle of the nineteenth. Out of this Great Awakening came liberation movements—abolition, women's rights, and others.
Some historians even posit a third and a fourth—the latter happening in the 1960s and 1970s with the "Jesus Movement".
One of they key ideas in this approach is that culture changes from the bottom up—i.e. when people change their hearts and their minds as a result of spiritual awakening (getting saved), culture changes. So the hope is for another revival to come to change culture and create the kind of safe streets I'm talking about above.
The other predominant approach to changing culture towards the Kingdom of God is the opposite of this—through taking over the political and legal institutions and changing these. This can be seen in the Christian Nationalist movements, largely driven by Christian Reconstructionism (reconstructing society to be a theocracy of some kind) or "Dominionism" (Christians taking dominion over all aspects of culture).
It's interesting how people respond to either of these approaches. The media and the American Left, in particular, see the latter as the most dangerous thing happening right now. They seem more-or-less okay with the former, since it doesn't really affect them and allows Christianity to remain a mere 'private' religion.
What is fascinating, however, is to note the Progressive Left has the exact same approach to culture. It sees Progress (a very vague idea, in reality, as exactly what are we progressing to?) to come through mainly via political and legal means. There is no "bottom-up" approach in the Progressive Left. It's all activism, really. The only 'bottom-up' approach is through what are effectively brainwashing techniques to recruit for the cause. Individual conscience means very little—your conscience is dictated merely by what 'the cause' says today. It's really an all-or-nothing approach, which is why the rhetoric gets so heated.
This is why right now, it seems that the very politically engaged Right in America is moving more towards "Christian Nationalism" as the very politically engaged Left continues to try and continue to try take over every institution in America. If you believe the only way to transform society is through ruling its institutions, well then that's precisely what you're going to do.
The best place to note this battle taking place is in Education. The Left took hold of the universities and has now, almost under the radar, attempted to brainwash the younger kids as well in public schools with rainbow flags and pride days and books about transgender sex in libraries. It looks to attack identity and family because that's precisely how you get people to sign up for The Cause—first strip them of their given identity and give them a new one within the group.
Most churches are probably revivalist
I think that most churches probably adopt the revivalist approach to culture. This bottom-up approach has much to commend it. It's much more peaceful, respects the conscience of the individual, provides people with community and spiritual life, and an imaginative purpose for their lives.Unfortunately, though, it doesn't appear to be working. No matter how much is being done, the corruption seems to be growing. I think this is because a lot of people are revived personally but they simply don't know what they need to do next in the culture. They don't know how to engage the culture unless they engage in top-down approaches, which many people simply don't have the stomach (or the calling) for.
Another approach?
I think there might be another approach and that is to look to renew culture not from the top or from the bottom but from the side.This approach gets to keep all that makes the revivalist approach appealing, while actually engaging culture much more directly.
The basis for this approach comes through the first key verse in the Bible that speaks of culture, Genesis 2:15.
I say this speaks to culture because this verse speaks of cultivating. The etymological root of the word 'culture' comes from the Latin 'colere', which is about cultivating—to 'care for', to 'to toil over', to look after something for its growth. If we look at the Hebrew words for 'tend' and 'keep' in Genesis 2:15 it is about keeping watch, caring for, guarding and preserving; as well as to serve or even, surprisingly, to worship.
The image of a garden is something that grows organically yet, at the same time, requires some ordering and looking after. A garden is an amazing thing. It has elements of ordered wildness. You can arrange and order, but it also does its own thing. You need to de-weed, but you don't micro-manage the growth.
If you're reading between the lines, you might note that this requires both a form of preservation (usually the conservative concern) and progress (usually the progressive concern). Human beings never seem to know how to balance their concerns very well. Too much preservation leads to death; too much progress leads to chaos (which usually also leads to death). But it seems to me that the existence of both a progressive and conservative element in a society is a healthy thing. If we could understand this, we probably tend to our culture in way that brings flourishing, not the present destruction.
All this to say that I think the way to approach culture is to get alongside it rather than ignore it (most revivalist approaches) or rule over it (the pervasive Left and Right approaches). This comes via each of us seeing our jobs—our vocations—as key in shaping culture for the good. How you do your job matters. You're not just there to make your money, look after your family, enjoy your holidays, and go to church on Sundays for your spiritual health. Pastors are not just to see their jobs as one where they are to grow their churches to look after spiritual needs, while praying and hoping for revival to come. We are all to get involved in a way that is humble and optimistic. That's what people are really looking for.
You are wherever you find you are to make a difference. Not the kind of difference that seeks to have 'dominion'—to rule. But the kind that seeks to tend, keep, shape, love, hope, collaborate, care for with humility and gentleness. There will always be weeds (as Jesus indicates in Mark 4:26-29) but yet remain optimistic.
I think that if enough people took this approach to their every day jobs and vocations, we might finally see the kids playing in the streets safely, rather than on a heaping pile of trash. The other approaches have not worked, not historically and they won't now. Rather, we need to develop a better way. Am I merely being idealistic again? Perhaps. But far better to have hope than to live simply clinging on, biding my time through a dark world.
