The Culture of Religion: I Was Wrong

In the last post I was arrogant. I was a hypocrite too. I asked you to think about a new method but I asked it in a way that was not encouraging, patient, or most importantly, attempting to understand you at all.

It all went wrong when I assumed my beliefs were obviously correct. Honestly, I felt frustrated. I wondered, why would anyone not have thought of the things I have, or why would anyone do them differently?

That's really a good question to ask.



The story of Jimi and his evangelists in a small town in Utah show us that there is such a thing as religious culture. It is the normative way of thinking and dealing with religious issues. Every group has a different culture, or, ideological arrangement of dos and don'ts, and values and ethics, which they derive from scripture and lay upon scripture. The word of God is the inerrant truth. Most evangelicals believe this to be true. Next we could ask: What are our distinctives? Which scriptures do we put in which order of significance when it comes to social interaction?

Let's assume that instead of doing what I did, I took into consideration the culture of the groups I speak of. How would it have been different?

First of all, I never bothered to ask those for whom I wanted to share my idea, what their ideal is, and how they are trying to attain it by their choices.

Second, what passages are they looking at? Have they read the passages I am concentrating on?

Third, everyone including believers has a specific "pattern in human activity." Sometimes I want to think "how can it be true that Christians can do or think anything differently? We all adhere to the authority of scripture. Therefore there is no such thing as different, only right and wrong."

That is true, though I need to remember not everybody has heard all the scriptures of some matter, before. Sometimes they hear one principle, and apply it, before another. One man's order might be different than mine.

Forth, people hear things in different ways. In the last post the townspeople understood service before testimony, and testimony before scripture. There are taboos--things you should avoid--for every group.

I wonder what the culture is for the people of Free Grace?

One thing I've noticed is that many teachers of Free Grace concepts have emphasized the importance of never assuming to know another man's thoughts. This comes from a historical appreciation of how some theologians after Calvin have expanded the teaching, claiming they knew his mind in a matter where he actually had not spoken. Whether or not this is an accurate portrayl of historical Calvinism, it remains pertinent as a rule of conduct for the group. One can get farther if they refrain from speaking on the behalf of another.

I don't know all the in's and out's yet. But it's my job to find them out, and then change my way of doing things.

I desperately want to be better than I have been in the past. When I notice myself shaking my head in disbelief at the other guy's way of thinking and acting, it is an alarm to me that there is a gap in culture which needs my primary attention. I asked my husband to help point out why I had that nagging, guilty feeling.

I personally need to work on trying to remember that Calvinists are doing the best they can to obey the scriptures as they are convicted by them. I apologize for pretending like this is obvious, because it isn't. I will try to bridge the space between us, and then maybe I might be able to show them what I believe. Who knows? They might have a little something to teach me.