What’s The Christian Response To The Current Culture?

For months, I’ve been grappling with what should be the Christian Response to the Current Culture?

A timeless question asked by followers of Jesus for 2,000 years.

What is the current culture? A solid 30 percent of the United States supports the illegal actions of a convicted felon.

The government is controlled by people who don’t want to feed the hungry, who don’t want to clothe the naked, and don’t want to welcome strangers; as Jesus instructs his followers in Matthew 25.

Mainstream Christianity in the U.S. has seemingly morphed into the same thing – people more concerned about their own luxuries than the basic necessities of others.

This shouldn’t be a surprise.

From Roman dictator Constantine to American dictator Donald Trump, too much of mainstream Christianity has always been a mixture of militarism and control.

The vast majority of Christians remain more committed to the nation controlling the land they live on, than the God who created it.

Christians have killed Christians for the sake of nations with nearly the murderous enthusiasm Christians displayed killing savages in the name of God in every new land they encountered.

Jesus lived on the fringes of the mainstream, militarized culture. In a world filled with Romans, pagans, Samaritans, Jews – and the countless religions from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, the message of Jesus was carried by a small segment of the world.

The authentic message of Jesus has existed on the fringe of the mainstream culture for nearly 2,000 years, and that’s where it remains, today.

Quiet voices repeating the message of Jesus and gentle, grace-filled souls attempting to live the life of Jesus stand no chance of breaking through the walls of noise and tribalism that has swarmed around the cross since 313, when Constantine co-opted Christianity to control the Roman Empire.

Too many Christian voices in the U.S. are Constantine Christians who look at a flaming sword and think, “By this, conquer,” which where the words Constantine said, upon his “conversion” to Christianity.

“Conquer with the sword” has been the theme of much of Christianity for much of the time, since.

It was wrong with Constantine, it was wrong during the inquisition and the crusades, and it is wrong today. And it’s wrong when Christian soldiers go marching as to war.

Constantinian Christians. In other words, Christian Nationalists.

Christians today who believe the country should be driven by “Christian” principles to control how people dress, how they reproduce, how they worship, and what they read or think. But these same “Christians” don’t believe the so-called “Christian” nation should feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger.

They reject the words of Jesus – feed the hungry, help the stranger, love others – and instead claim the name of Christian to discriminate, humiliate, isolate, segregate, and hate everyone who isn’t exactly like them.

“The sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy,” said, Pope Francis. “You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25.

“It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help. If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite.”

Are they Christian at all? You may wear a gold cross, or you may have said the sinner’s prayer or even been baptized by full immersion, but are you really a Christian if you don’t do the basic, simply things Jesus says to do?

You’re a hypocrite, at best. But you’re little more than a Cosplay Christian wearing a costume and pretending, blissfully, willfully ignorant of the beliefs and responsibilities of actually being a Christian and trying to do the things Jesus calls us to do – to do the things the Bibles tells us to do – to do the things God wants us to do.

And it’s not protest in front of abortion clinics, or pass legislation controlling what people do with their bodies, or the books they read, or the public restrooms they use.

What they are doing is ungodly. Unchristian. Immoral. These people aren’t Christians.

They may self-identify as Christians, but they aren’t.

So, what is to be done?