CHOOSING CULTURE BY DEFAULT

There are some things in life that we don’t get to choose. Our parents, where we are born, our racial characteristics, our DNA, our gender. (OK some people these days like to think that we choose our gender – I won’t touch that hot potato here. The fact remains that, at birth, the overwhelming majority of us are either male or female.)

Moving on…

In today’s blog, I would like to question the common assumption that our culture is another predetermined reality. Culture is not something that we are born with but something that we may be born into. If I am born into a Christian family, or a Muslim family, or whatever, the culture of these things will be progressively incorporated into our lives, depending on a significant number of variables.

But, to the extent that I can look at cultures objectively, I can accept or reject aspects of those cultures. Some Americans, for instance, choose to distance themselves from the gun culture that prevails in parts of their nation. Young people in many cultures these days reject some aspects of the traditional culture that they were born into. Personally, I have chosen to distance myself from the alcohol culture that typifies Australian culture.

Western culture is often dictated by the fluctuating trends of popular media. It is a fluid culture with only the vaguest possible underpinning worldview. As a young man coming to faith in Christ, I realized quickly enough that “worldly” culture was not something that I wanted to build my life on. I realized that, to a very real extent, I could choose my own culture.

There are, no doubt, sociologists and anthropologists who would strenuously deny what I have just written. They would say that I am simply unaware of the extent to which I have imbibed the culture I grew up in. Choosing a different culture to that into which we were born is difficult but, with enough cultural awareness, it is certainly possible.

I believe that Christianity is more than  a belief system. It is, in fact, a fully rounded culture, with a definite worldview, a relationship with a loving God, a whole set of moral standards and paradigms for living.

If we accept Christ on an intellectual or emotional level, but continue to live in some other culture, our walk with Him often fails. But when we choose to follow Christ with our whole life, adapting our lifestyle accordingly, the Christian culture becomes a powerful unifying force in our lives.

In this blog, I always aim to demonstrate the benefits of Christian culture. But for today, the message is simply that we can all choose to live the Christian life. We can choose a vague worldly culture by default or we can deliberately choose Christian culture.