Has Culture Adoration Replaced Belief in God?

Below is an interesting quote from Albert Mohler's blog regarding the increasing percentage of humankind who live in cities. Apparently only about 13% of us lived in cities in the year 1900. Within the next few months, roughly half of us globally will reside in large cities. This, in and of itself, creates an interesting dynamic in terms of culture. It almost seems that the veneration of culture sweeps in where broad secularism is present. Here's a clip from Dr. Mohler's blog article. Hop on over there and read the whole thing.

"...In another article from the survey, "In Place of God," the magazine considers what secularization has meant for the city. The suggested answer is simple -- culture has replaced belief in God. As the magazine puts it, "culture replaces religion:"

From the earliest times, a central role of any big town was sacred or religious. Until the 16th century, the status of a city was in England granted only to towns that had a diocesan cathedral, and to this day the title "metropolitan" is in some churches given to senior clerics. Cities still tend to have bigger and more splendid churches, mosques and temples than do mere towns and villages. But in the rich world the religious role of the metropolis has diminished, often to vanishing point. The ensuing vacuum has generally been filled by a secular alternative.

The main secular alternative is culture, represented by orchestras, galleries, museums, and the theater. Cities such as Sydney in Australia and Bilbao in Spain have catapulted themselves into the world's consciousness through massive leaps in cultural institutions.

When belief in God recedes, belief in culture takes its place, especially among the elites. Secularism creates an opportunity for art and other cultural forms to claim transcendence, and the elites celebrate and venerate art in almost sacramental terms."


What does this trend mean for the Church? I have read many articles over the years, especially when my husband was in full time youth ministry, teaching youth pastors the critical relevance of being culturally relevant. I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing as long as the Scriptures are held out as the foundation for all, and those methods used to supposedly give relevance to a ministry give honor to God, not self or talent or wittiness or whatever. I do, however, see a danger in relevance itself becoming the objective of a youth ministry, or a church, because a focus on cultural relevance can tend to cause some folks to almost be ashamed of the "uncoolness" or counter-cultural themes of the gospel.

We tend to try to, as the proverb says, throw out the baby with the bath water on these types of issues. I am not saying here that a church should ignore culture, or strive to be anti-cultural. I will say, though, that I have noticed in some places, even here in the conservative and mostly secular midwest that when relevance becomes a focal point of a ministry, boldness for the gospel diminishes almost geometrically. Must this always be the case? I don't think so. And I am not saying that any church where relevance is a tenet of their evangelism strategy is apostate or anything like that. If I had any authority or influence over those types of churches, I would urge them to really look at their methods in light of biblical historical Christianity (the book of Acts comes to mind...) and learn just how crazy the gospel message seemed to the world at that time.

I don't think we realize with our western culture mindset just how radical Jesus was for His time on earth. If He cared about working within culture, He never would have spoken to the Samaritan woman at the well, for instance. It was culturally unacceptable! He wouldn't have hung out with drunkards and beggars and tax collectors either. He most certainly taught things that went directly against culture...

"Bless those who curse you."

"“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus did live within the culture as a practicing Jew under Roman rule. He went to synagogue, paid taxes, helped friends and strangers. Yet when He was prompted by the Holy Spirit to be counter-cultural, He did it. Maybe that's our issue as the Church? It seems like things like this always boil down to walking in the Holy Spirit. How many of our elder boards can say to us, "We really sense that the Lord is leading us to (fill-in-the-blank)?" Oh, if that happened truly the world would be changed. Yet is anything impossible for God?