{"id":2787,"date":"2016-11-03T04:29:48","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T09:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=2787"},"modified":"2016-11-03T04:29:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T09:29:48","slug":"maybe-we-should-forfeit-the-culture-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2016\/11\/03\/maybe-we-should-forfeit-the-culture-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe We Should Forfeit the Culture War"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a busy time in American culture over the last few years. Like visiting a construction site every few weeks, it seems like every time you look at our cultural landscape there’s always something new and\/or different.
\nFeminists loudly protest any children’s toys or television shows that “affirm male and female stereotypes.” Comedians are uninvited from their gigs because one of their jokes\u00a0might<\/em> offend somebody. Progressives demand that any and every gender be respected and accommodated.\u00a0Confederate flags are being removed from nearly\u00a0every place that they were once displayed publicly. College students campaign for name changes to places on their campuses that are adorned with the name of a famous alumni who had a morally questionable past.
\nRacism will no longer exist, no one will be honored if any shred of offensiveness can be found in his or her past, everyone will be respected for their sexual choices, acts of “toxic masculinity” (like men holding doors for women) will be abolished, and everyone will get to define his\/her\/whoever’s own gender.
\nWhat they’re doing is obvious. They’re all trying to rid the world of\u00a0every ill that they see. They want to perfect this world and make it a place where\u00a0their moral code is upheld in every place.
\nSound familiar?
\nAs Christians, we’ve made the mistake of fighting on the same battlefield as the world.\u00a0We can complain all we want about the politically correct people trying to make the world the way they want it, but we’ve essentially done the same thing through the same methods. We relied on a majority we once had to carry out God’s will in a way He never intended, and now that we don’t have the majority anymore, we’re losing.
\nWe’ve tried to make the world conform to God’s image by legislation, by legislators, by boycott, by petitions and letters. The most extreme example, of course, would be the few who tried to force Starbucks to change their cups to include the word “Christmas” last year, but many similar, less newsworthy actions have been taken over the last few decades to try to keep the world from acting like the world.\u00a0But to what end?
\nThe world is going to be the world. They’re going to hate Jesus (John 15:18). Paul called Christians to stop judging the world in a way that makes us withdraw ourselves from them (1 Corinthians 5:10-13), and yet the tactic we’ve taken is one that insulates us from the world and complains about their ungodliness. If we fight the world’s battles on the world’s battlefield, we’re going to lose. And, as you can see from a quick glance at the culture, we’re losing.
\nThe answer, of course, is to go back to doing things God’s way. We forfeit the culture war, letting them fight on their worldly battlefield as we take the fight to another plane entirely. We have to remember that this world is not our home, and our goal was never to cleanse it and make it a perfect, cushy place for us to live. As long as we’re keeping our eyes on the Savior (Hebrews 12:1-2) and on the reward in heaven, we’ll change the world for the better just by bringing more of His light. I’m reminded of what C.S. Lewis wrote about Christians changing the world in “Mere Christianity” –<\/p>\n

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.\u00a0<\/strong>(Emp. added)<\/p>\n

Decades ahead of his time (as usual), Lewis accurately pointed out that the more we think of our place on this earth, the less effective we’ll be in changing it. The British slave trade itself was ended not by the social justice warriors of his day, but by a man (William Wilberforce) whose deep biblical conviction moved him to tireless action. If we want to see a better world today, we need to start by fixing our eyes on Christ and letting the rest fall into place.
\nIt’s time we stop fighting battles the world’s way, stop expecting the world to act as though they are obedient to God, and start shining our lights again.
\nBy Jack Wilkie<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a busy time in American culture over the last few years. Like visiting a construction site every few weeks, it seems like every time you look at our cultural landscape there’s always something new and\/or different. Feminists loudly protest any children’s toys or television shows that “affirm male and female stereotypes.” Comedians are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59],"tags":[316,345,23,166],"class_list":["post-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","tag-christianity","tag-culture-2","tag-jack","tag-war","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nMaybe We Should Forfeit the Culture War - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2016\/11\/03\/maybe-we-should-forfeit-the-culture-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maybe We Should Forfeit the Culture War - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s been a busy time in American culture over the last few years. 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