WHERE IS CULTURE HEADED?

In recent weeks, in this blog, I have discussed the cultural confusion that seriously began infecting Western society in the 1960s and the cultural confusion that we see now. No longer is there a deeply shared worldview or faith. Australia is multi-cultural. But where are we headed? What sort of cultural outlook do we have as a nation?

Let me suggest that a cultural vacuum cannot exist for long. Something will inevitably arise to fill the void. And, at the moment, the leading contender for this role, unfortunately, is Islam.

Many Australians are genuinely shocked that Islam continues to make inroads into Western society, despite the bad worldwide press of Islam-ists who carry out obscene acts of violence and terror. Every week we see reports on the latest atrocities of Boko Haram, or some other radical Islamic group. Today, there are reports of a Christian woman in Sudan, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, who has been sentenced to death by hanging for the “crime” of “apostasy”, ie, leaving her father’s Muslim religion.

So how come more and more Western nations are bending over backwards to accommodate Islam? The answer has to do with culture.

You see, Islam self-identifies as more than just a religion. Islam has a strongly defined culture. Some Muslims are happy to live on the very edge of that culture but Muslims who take the Koran more seriously naturally want to centre their whole lives in Islamic culture. Islam is making inroads because culture, like nature in the proverb, abhors a vacuum.

Butter cannot stop a hot knife from penetrating and neither can a disjointed, anything goes “multi-culture” resist the penetration of a strong, clearly defined ideology that keeps pushing. Yes, I know there are divisions within Islam. And yes I know that not all Muslims want to live under Sharia law. But the ideal of multiculturalism, that it can safely and helpfully accommodate every possible culture, was flawed from the beginning. And now it is facing its most severe test.

Christianity should be the culture rushing to fill the void in Western culture. It has a very defensible worldview (ultimate truth, really) and a Christian culture based on love and compassion can do no harm where it is fully adopted. But, alas, Christianity in Australia is still not walking in the unity that God requires.

Multiculturalism is being tested but so also is Christianity. These are critical times and the cultural outlook of nations like Australia in twenty or thirty years will depend on who stands up strongly to shine a light through this present cultural darkness.