The Culture War is Over; Thank God!

A few years ago I had a transformative experience on Las Vegas Boulevard. I was standing in front of a multi-billion dollar hotel, knowing what Las Vegas is built on, where its roots are, and thinking of the waves of people walking past me. It was like a light came on and I realized the culture war is over-we lost. Let me repeat. WE LOST!

The culture war dominated much of the 1980's and 1990's as an argumentative and aggressive political posture, mainly myopic about homosexuality and abortion. That posture led to a perception of moral and religious superiority for Christians. The posture bullied through certain initiatives, but also alienated countless people from the faith.

The culture war is over not just in Las Vegas. It's over in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and most other major cities in America. Sure I'm a little skewed living in Sin City, but the realization that Christians lost the culture war has actually liberated and empowered us. It has forced us to re-evaluate how and when we engage culture. Now our calling is to love and accept people one on one, caring for them where they are. Our role is subversive, as we carry the light and love of Jesus into streets of our city. We're trying to flip the perception of superiority and hypocrisy by being honest and straightforward about our faults and our hope for transformation in Jesus. And we're joining our community in a different culture war-one that attacks poverty, crime, addiction, and pain.

Rather than posture ourselves against or above our culture, we are seeing a stronger impact from adopting several important postures.

1. A posture of grace over judgment
When Sonny first came to our church he had been living on the street as a crack addict for nine months. He was a mess. But our people didn't judge him, they cared for him. Sonny became a Christian, was baptized, and began a spiritual journey. Eventually people in the church helped him get a job and gave him a car. He went on to grow and mature and even start his own business and get married.

Fast forward four years from the time Sonny walked in off the street. The mayor of Las Vegas tries to pass a law that says you can no longer feed the homeless in any public place in the city. Vegas does not have the social services of many cities already, and it has been voted meanest city in America to the homeless.

Sonny is outraged and decides he cannot sit by and watch this happen. He sues the Mayor, contending that the law is unconstitutional. The first hearing finally comes. Picture the courtroom. All the attorneys for the Mayor on one side in their power suits. An average guy standing alone on the other side in his street clothes. The judge looked over the case and looked to the Mayor's attorney's. He said that it was unconstitutional to single out one group of people and discriminate against them in this way and he threw the case out! The reason you can give a homeless guy a sandwich on the streets of Vegas today is because one former homeless guy named Sonny used his influence.

But would that have ever happened if he'd first encountered judgment rather than grace when he walked into a church?

All of it starts with grace, God's grace, which can work in our lives powerfully over time. over time. Are you living in that grace? Are you quick to share it or are you quick to judge? Are you meeting your friends and family with that grace? Are you envisioning them to accomplish their dreams for God through that grace?

2. A posture of love over inaction
Love is not simply the opposite of hate. Love is the opposite of inaction as well. If we say we love our culture, but we don't act with love toward it, we're only kidding ourselves.

A couple years ago a business leader in our church named Scott told me that there were 4,000 registered homeless kids in the Las Vegas valley. They are fed through the elementary school system on the week days, but many of them don't eat anything on the weekends. Eventually, Scott started a company called Corps of Compassion and began to have strategic conversations with the school system in our valley. We as a church came alongside them and now we are feeding over 700 kids every week. Hundreds of our church members are volunteering and Casinos are bussing their employees down to help prepare the food bags. Together as casino workers and church members stuff backpacks of food for local elementary school kids, conversations begin to happen-about God, about who Jesus claimed to be, about what the church is really about. Perceptions and ultimately lives are changed. But it goes back to Scott and a group of people who chose to do something about a need in their community.

Rather than picket the moral failure of your community, what would happen if you began to serve the community? Won't our actions of love and mercy make a greater impact than our picket sign? Won't what we do be so much louder than what we say?

3. A posture of truth over inauthenticity
I was having lunch with a friend named Jim Gilmore. He wrote an amazing book entitled Authenticity and is just brilliant. Jim said, "Authenticity is a big buzz word in the church, but the Bible does not use the term. It doesn't talk about authenticity as we do today. The Bible talks about truth. Living in the truth and sharing the truth."

That statement really got me thinking. The Bible does speak in terms of truth that make absolute claims on our lives. I should be more concerned about knowing this truth and living in it than I am about being authentic. By living in the truth honestly, the authenticity side of things will take care of itself. I'm learning that people won't really listen to you until they trust you. Trust comes from grace and love. When they trust you, and you tell them the truth, they will trust you more, even if the truth is hard. Truth must be at the center of our lives.

Jim signed his book Authenticy for me this way: "To Jud, Be real; preach truth." It has had a real impact on me. I pray that by taking a posture of grace, love, and truth we can continue to see cultural change in significant ways.

 

1 Comment »

1. I just wanted to say thanks Jud, Ive been going to the late services at
   central for about a year, your service last sunday really touched me,
   in the past Ive me with a lot of judgements from other churches and really felt out of place and left out -even though i was teaching a children’s sunday school class- all of that left me feeling hostile towards Christians and stopped going to services for many years, i went with my mother to central one sunday, and found a place that’s the epitome of acceptance and love. keep up the great work,and keep writing! your a really great author! and I’ll see you next sunday-

   Comment by vegasblondie - Nov 26, 2008 @ 02:43 AM

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