Confessions of a Christian Culture Snob

There's a danger in making an idol out of cultural sophistication.

Im coming home this weekend. Lets get togetherwant to see a movie?
Sure! Ive been dying to see Gods Not Dead.
I immediately began to concoct excuses for why I could no longer see my friend that
evening. I had read the reviews. I had seen the tweets. Gods Not Dead was
a Christian movie.
I had been a Christian long enough to know that I don't typically care for Christian
movies. They are too obvious. Too simplistic.
Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately), my friend had not yet been initiated into my
skepticism. As a matter of fact, he had just started walking with Jesus a couple months
earlier.
Simpler Times
I arrived in my hometown still unable to manufacture an adequate escape plan, and so I
slogged my way into the movie theater with my friend for 90-minutes of drudgery.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE APPLY OUR NOTIONS
OF SOPHISTICATION TO HOW WE EXPERIENCE
GOD, AND OUR EXPECTATIONS OF HOW
OTHERS SHOULD EXPERIENCE HIM?
Now there are certainly valid criticisms of the film, but my opposition to it didn't really have
anything to do with those criticisms. My opposition was a generic assumption: This is another
simple, obvious Christian movie.
For those of you who have not seen Gods Not Dead, the movie centers around Josh, a
young man in college whose philosophy teacher explicitly derides the notion that God
exists. Josh believes it is a test of his faith to defend the existence of God to the
professor and his classmates. The movie follows the student as he makes sacrifices
relationships, grades, timein order to speak up for what he believes.
Truth be told, the movie is not perfect. It emphasizes faith as a driver of conflict in
communities, lacks nuance in addressing higher education, and several of the
characters are, well, caricaturessometimes offensively so.
However, the movie forced me to ask simple questions that had perhaps become too
easy to avoid in my day-to-day life: Am I choosing to follow Jesus in every area of my
life? What compromises am I making in my faith? How do I handle conflict?
Sophistication and Expectation
Last month, Ruth Graham wrote a widely-discussed article suggesting that grown adults
should be embarrassed to read young adult fiction. The article generated a fascinating
conversation about art, why we consume it and what we should receive from it.
This conversation reminded me of my reaction to Gods Not Dead. What happens when
we apply our notions of sophistication to how we experience God, and our expectations
of how others should experience Him?
Our preference for sophistication can be a stumbling block in our own faith and the faith
of others. Judgment in the name of sophistication has somehow remained acceptable,
even laudable, in todays culture that scorns judgment in other forms.
Yet, when applied to matters of faith, this sort of judgment can be just as harmful. When
our cultural tastes start making people feel inferior for how they relate to God, then our
cultural tastes have become a danger. We can convince people that God is
unreachable and far away, when our God is close and wants to be known.
Pride Without Knowledge
We can also deceive ourselves. Graduating from reading C.S. Lewis to now reading
Abraham Kuyper does not count as spiritual formation. We are not better Christians
because we listen to one worship band over another. We do not get more saved
(safer?) the more elaborate our theological understanding or artistic taste becomes.
This is not to promote anti-intellectualism. We are to love God with all of our mind, and
to pursue Him with all of the understanding and intellectual resources we can muster.
Christians should absolutely be striving to create the world's best, most interesting, most
thoughtful pieces of art.
What I am warning against is the pride that can come with knowledge, and the
deception that more knowledge alone leads to a deeper understanding of God.
The Idol of Cultural Taste
So how do we prevent becoming Christian culture snobs?
First, we can make sure to not make an idol of our artistic and cultural tastes. Perhaps
even more than our taste in food, because our faith is so central to who we are as
people, our preferences in Christian music, film, authors and so on is guided by our
experiences and circumstances.
WE ARE NOT BETTER CHRISTIANS BECAUSE WE
LISTEN TO ONE WORSHIP BAND OVER ANOTHER.
WE DO NOT GET MORE SAVED THE MORE
ELABORATE OUR THEOLOGICAL
UNDERSTANDING BECOMES.
Second, we can apply a spirit of loving sacrifice in our relationships when it comes to art
and culture. When we refuse to put Jesus in the box of our own tastes and
predilections, we can be open to experiencing Him in community through other
perspectives. Perhaps Terrance Malicks Tree of Life and Gods Not Dead both have
something to tell us about Gods character and our life in Him. There are situations
when our view of sophistication should be subjugated in order to serve others, and help
them experience Christ for himself.
Faith Like a Child
I almost missed out on the opportunity to have a conversation with my friend about what
it means to follow Christ, because I was too sophisticated to walk into a movie theater.
I had forgotten what those first few months had felt like after I gave my life to Christ. I
was refreshed, certainly, but also uncertain about what it all meant for my everyday life.
What does it really mean to be a Christian?
That question has led me to consume all kinds of books, movies and music in pursuit of
a deeper understanding of how I can best follow Jesus. But what I keep on returning to
is that we have a Savior who says that we can come to him like a child.
My friend needed to hear an affirmation of simple truths that night at the movie theater. I
did too. Gods not dead: Hes real, He loves us, and we can follow Him in our daily lives.
Now that is brilliant.