Religion and Culture

There is a debate out there about the growing acceptance of gay marriage among evangelical Christians.

I grew up Southern Baptist but found my way out back in the 1980s. I had been moving in a more liberal direction in my spirituality while the Southern Baptist Convention was moving in an even more conservative direction.  Nevertheless, I do have some fond memories growing up in that faith community, so I try to keep up with where they and other evangelicals are from time to time, even though my own path has taken me to other pastures.

An Evangelical Question

Roger Olson is one of the bloggers I follow (My Evangelical Arminian Musings at Patheos). He grew up Pentecostal then became Baptist and is currently a theology professor at Baylor University. I like his Arminian (vs. Calvinist) viewpoint and I admire his academic rigor. Though he is more conservative than I am, he is proficient in a wide spectrum of theological views (he says, “Before you can say, ‘I disagree,’ you must first be able to say, ‘I understand’ ”).

In a post this week, Olson poses a question of why, since 2015, are we seeing more evangelical churches adopt a welcoming stance toward same-sex marriage? He says he has not heard many biblical references from those advocating change, and is concerned that evangelicals, who have been noted for insisting upon biblical authority and resistance to culture, are now accommodating to the surrounding culture and neglecting biblical authority (see What Happened in 2015? at Roger E. Olson My Evangelical Arminian Musings).

A Non-Evangelical Response

I was actually somewhat encouraged by Olson’s question because I was not aware of the significant number of evangelical churches that are coming around to an acceptance of people in the LGBTQ community. Here is my response which I made in the comments section of Olson’s blog:

Are evangelicals accommodating to the culture, or are they modifying their interpretation of scripture? I think that you could make an argument for both, and it is not an either/or phenomena. We could be seeing both occurring simultaneously.

What happened in 2015 may be similar to what happened in 1964. In each case, there were legislative actions and court decisions* that (1) made discrimination illegal and (2) raised public awareness about how some sectors of the population were being unfairly treated.

In 1964, the Baptist churches in which I grew up had to face the fact that segregation was wrong (or at least illegal). Even then, many, many did not agree with the civil rights act. My home church continued to post a couple of deacons outside the church at each service to make sure no unwanted blacks tried to enter. Over time, most churches have come around to the fact that Jesus would not call them to exclude their fellow black Christians, though a hundred years of strict adherence to biblical authority had failed to get that across to the Southern Baptists of my childhood.

Today, we are being educated about the nature of sexual orientation and some churches are coming to realize that persons should not be condemned and excluded on the basis of genetic factors over which they have no control. Sure, there are still those who will stand guard to refuse acceptance of anyone in the LGBTQ community. Some will cite biblical references to back up their decision. Unfortunately, it is always easier to justify fear and hate than it is to take a close look at the person we are discriminating against.

Some will say that the church cannot condone sin, that Jesus said “Go and sin no more.” However, there is a difference in same-sex commitment in a monogamous relationship and promiscuous sexual behavior. Just as heterosexuals can live in faithful commitment to their partner or they can be promiscuous in their sexuality, the same might be said of those who identify as LGBTQ.  One way to view it is that the church does not condemn all heterosexual behavior because some are promiscuous, and neither should we place every person in a same-sex partnership in that “sinful” category.

Is this growing acceptance of people in the LGBTQ community a case of accommodation to culture, or is it re-evaluating biblical principles? Perhaps both things are happening.

The Real Cultural Accommodation

Unfortunately, there is a more troubling cultural accommodation on the part of evangelicals. The fact that the Christian Right has fully embraced a political party that has come to embody white supremacy and stands by a president whose demagoguery appeals to racist and xenophobic fears is an indication that evangelicals are willing to forfeit their core Christian beliefs in exchange for political influence.

I began my response above with a reminder that evangelical’s adherence to biblical principles did nothing to enlighten them on the evils of racism. It was only when society became awake enough to pass civil rights legislation that most churches began to lend their voices to the cause of racial equality. Even so, our country to this day has exhibited an extended reluctance to make good on the promise of freedom and justice for all.

Perhaps we Christians have always been more accommodating to the surrounding culture than we care to admit. In some cases, that is unfortunate, in other cases, at least we are moving toward a better understanding. In truth, most of us who practice our faith want a religion that gives us a sense of belonging and helps us through the rough patches in life but does not make too many demands upon us.

As people of faith, we hope that we are moving forward and that we can make a positive difference in the world. Historically, we have made that journey in fits and starts with mixed results. If we can bring some light into the world and get us closer to that beloved community, then we are making progress. Whether we get there by way of scripture or by way of culture probably does not matter in the end. I do know that often we can see justice more clearly only when the ground around us shifts.

Just as scripture can enlighten us in our interaction with the culture, our culture can also shed new light on our sacred scriptures. In any case, if we can be guided by compassion and justice, then we can manage a few steps forward.

Digging Deeper

If you really want to delve into the topic of religion and culture, you could find no better source that Richard Niebuhr’s seminal work, Christ and Culture. In that book, Niebuhr examines different ways that Christian churches have interacted with their culture.  He sees that there have been varying degrees of tension between “the church and the world.” His book outlines three different ways that Christians have approached that tension:

          1. Christ Against Culture

          2. Christ Of Culture

          3. Christ Above Culture

For a fine discussion of Niebuhr’s book, go to “Christ and Culture” – An Overview of a Christian Classic at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/christ-and-culture-an-overview-of-a-christian-classic/

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*The legal scales were finally tipped to require recognition of gay marriage after years of debate. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5–4 decision that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states. The church then either "followed" the trend, or reassessed biblical interpretation once it became recognized legally.

Photography above by Charles Kinnaird:
Top: Steeple of First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Alabama
Bottom: Stained glass window at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Birmingham, Ala.


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