The notion of a Christian West or Christian nation is gasping its last breath, and yet, Christendom is not dead. It has just relocated.
For many Christians, Christendom has shrunk from the broader national and political spheres to the narrow arena of ’my church’. For them, their church is the embodiment the kingdom of God on earth. Everything beyond it is wrong, flawed, or evil. Thus, church language, activity, and code of conduct do more than qualify and define it as different from the world but put it in opposition to the world. High walls have been constructed, if not physically then mentally, and now the borders of Christendom lie at the edge of church parking lot. Most everything beyond this border is a threat to the gospel and personal faith.
While such an attitude can be attributed to a reaction to secular humanism, deteriorating social mores, and national politics, it has come to include expressions of Christian faith that are historically and culturally different. Because they do not look, feel, or sound like us, they are a threat. For example, reports of a vibrant, growing church in Ghana, West Africa can be ignored or dismissed by a church in Waco, Texas with the simple statement that it is foreign, aberrant, or syncretistic. The siege mentality of Christendom gives my church permission to establish its forms of worship, polity, theology, and program as the norm for the church worldwide. If they sound like us, act like us, and agree with us, then quite possibly there may be an outpost of us in Ghana.
Or it may be that I see the church of Ghana as simply irrelevant. My church is in the midst of battle with its society and everything it teaches and does must be for the reinforcement of its border against society, for fear that it will be overrun by evil forces. So, the church in Ghana is a distraction and irrelevant to our struggle. We simply do not need them nor do we have time for them.
So, when my Church is Christendom, then I will ensure that my granddaughter is schooled in real Christianity and protected from tainted or less-than-ideal forms of faith. Africans in a cinder-block church half-way around the world have nothing to do with her and could even pose a threat to her formation in orthodox faith.
But to the contrary, Christendom must die. I have come to believe that my church desperately needs to know about, learn from, and live in solidarity with believers in Ghana. The church in Ghana has so much to teach me about what it means to live in a society of competing religions, the world of spirits and powers, and the kind of reliance on God that trumps money and privilege. My granddaughter needs to be schooled in the richness and diversity of Christianity, to understand the power of the gospel in the face of disease, poverty, and evil, and to worship Jesus in dance and jubilant song. She needs to know that walls do not hold this gospel and that the gospel has no borders.
I think this is a great perspective. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
This week I read an interesting article online about one’s personal identity (http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html). Although it is from a decidedly non-religious viewpoint, the nugget of keeping one’s identity small is an interesting in light of what you have said. If my Christian identity is confined to the local church, then anything that differs becomes a threat. However, if my identity is in Christ, and not in the local expression of my church, then world Christianity can develop and strengthen itself. But now I’m just repeating what you have already said, albeit less eloquently.
Great post! Well articulated!