We Become What We Tolerate

 

There are six things that the LORD hates, 

seven things detestable to him: snobbish eyes, a lying tongue, hands that spill innocent blood, a heart set on wicked plans, feet that run quickly to evil, a false witness who breathes lies, and one who causes conflicts among relatives. (Proverbs 6:16-19 CEB)

Culture has become the buzzword in leadership circles for the past 30 years. Leadership Guru Peter Drucker is quoted as saying, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." What he meant was that an organization's culture (the assumed, spoken, and unspoken roles, responsibilities, and relationships within an organization) is a better indicator of its success than a particular strategy or methodology.  

Culture, according to Mosaics Church Pastor Harry Li is the assumed understanding of "how things get done".  The culture of an organization or a society is shaped by what is celebrated and prioritized.  For instance, a culture that values hospitality, even if it is not formalized, will result in an environment where people are welcomed and service is highly regarded.  However, culture is equally shaped by what we tolerate.  For example, a church community could prioritize loving their neighbor in their mission statements, and plaster various forms of the great commandment (Love your neighbor as yourself) on the walls, hallways, and weekly bulletins. Still, suppose that same church tolerates hate speech, oppressive behavior, and objectifying policies. In that case, the culture of that church is not distinctive for its love, but for its vitriol towards others.  It does not matter if I read from Matthew 22 and encourage love for neighbor if I am unwilling to halt my own complicity against the neighbor that I allow to be objectified, rather than becoming an object of love. 

In Scripture, we see that God desires communities who "bear God's image", which means they exist to reflect God's attributes, which are revealed in Jesus.  God's goal was that communities of faith would serve as "witnesses" (Acts 1:8) to the presence and purposes of God.  This is not easily transmitted intellectually through a series of truths but must be embodied for credibility and effectiveness.  This embodied experience of the character of Jesus is referred to in Scripture as holiness. The culture that is revealed in church communities should prioritize and reflect who Jesus is and how Jesus lived.  

Most of the Bible is written for communities, to be read and understood communally. In much of the US, we are highly individualized, so we want to make everything about us as individuals and hence miss the power of the Word for our context.  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. (Gal 5:22 CEB)

It is common to read the text in Galatians as attributes of individuals in order to demonstrate Christ-likeness.  And in a sense, that is true.  However, the more powerful application is understanding that it is God's purpose to develop communities with a culture that prioritizes and embodies love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.  This is accomplished only when we have transformed relationships, not simply isolated pietistic experiences.  While you can apply the "fruit of the Spirit" to yourself (and you should), the witness and culture-building aspect occurs when you joyfully demonstrate love, peacemaking, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness to one another and your neighbors.

Jesus-centered culture, which reflects his attributes, also has little tolerance for that which is anti-Christ.  That is a loaded term since many use that term for an end-times character who will oppose God, but the Bible speaks of anti-Christ behavior, ethics, and culture that have existed throughout the world.

Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. (I Jn 2:18)

Anti-Christ culture denies what Jesus prioritized.  Specifically, anti-Christ culture tolerates the manipulation of the truth.  Instead of Jesus' service and generosity, anti-Christ culture tolerates greed and exploitation.  All while promoting Christian orthodoxy, simultaneously developing a culture that stands opposed to that which Jesus died for.

"We might be devout, we might claim to love Jesus as our personal savior, we might even get indignant over those who do not believe in a virtuous life--yet we go right on serving the empire and the culture of violence.  As we compartmentalize our spirituality, we go on supporting the world's killings, oppressions, and economic and military domination over billions of sisters and brothers around the world, not to mention the creatures of the earth and the earth itself. " -- John Dear in The Beatitudes of Peace.

If you are part of a church, you must recognize multiple influences on your church culture.  Notice what gets celebrated and what gets measured.  Begin to notice what gets the most attention.   Also note what is not only inconsistent with Jesus, but is tolerated and never renounced. This also extends to governmental or political candidates celebrated in your community.  When a church community is more concerned about a partisan platform than it is about misrepresenting the person of Jesus, culture has been co-opted.

Former Rochester Crozier Seminary Dean Marvin McMickle wrote a book called "Where Have All The Prophets Gone?" The book questioned where the leaders who are called to confront reality amidst deception, repentance amidst denial, and hope amidst despair were (3 Urgent Tasks of the Prophet, Brueggemann, 2014). This gifting (Eph 4:11) helps us align church culture with God's purposes.

"We seek prophets who can raise our consciousness to distinguish the difference between a form of Christianity that has been legitimized and normalized through time in the fiber of the life and culture of the United States and a Christianity based on the words and action of a certain brown, Jewish, Middle Easterner called Yeshua."--Miguel De La Torre in Burying White Privilege

The more that we avoid healthy confrontation with Anti-Christ culture, the more that the culture dominates and controls us. Ethicist Jonathan Haidt explains that "morality blinds and binds".  Once something goes from tolerated to normalized, we can no longer see how it controls us. Christian Philosopher Blaise Pascal said:

"Being unable to cause might to obey justice, men have made it just to obey might". 

The authenticity and credibility of Christian communities depend on a willingness to confront and renounce Anti-Jesus activity that may be forming your culture.  Social Critic David Dark (What Become What WE Normalize, 2023) sums up the challenge for churches in an era where manipulation and erasure of truth are accepted, where cruelty to the marginalized is celebrated, and where demonization of the misunderstood is the mainstay:

"The job, as I understand it, is to orient ourselves in as alert and artful a fashion as we can and to try to overcome, together with others, every form of deferential fear, opting for awareness at every turn.  If our awareness is shaped by the high-tech horse race for ad revenue, assuming responsibility for what we do, say, and share will involve creatively contemplating together with others what it means to know (or claim to know) something.  This will call for courage, conscience, and curiosity.  This is the prophetic task for a genuinely examined life in the age of disinformation."

This is the task: to be a prophetic community, interrogating our own ideas, attitudes, and actions in light of Jesus.  We must renounce anything that challenges our ability to bear the image of God and be credible witnesses to a world that is watching.  I end this essay with a challenge from Dr. Cornel West (Prophesy Deliverance!, 2002):

"To prophesy is not to predict an outcome but rather to identify concrete evils. To prophesy deliverance is not to call for some otherworldly paradise but rather to generate enough faith, hope, and love to sustain the human possibility for more freedom.  For me, to be a Christian is not to opt for some cheap grace, trite comfort, or childish consolation but rather to confront the darker sides, and the human plights, of societies and souls with the weak armor of compassion and justice."