The Christian’s Reaction to America’s Moral Mess (Pt 1)

Last week I posted a blog entitled, “7 Reasons for America’s Moral Mess” in which I outlined seven factors contributing to the state of America’s dire moral condition. In this and the subsequent blog I will propose two facets of the Christian’s reaction to America’s moral mess. In this blog I will approach the issue from a more general position of the Christian’s interaction with “the world,” identifying three commonly held positions of interaction. In part 2, I will identify seven specific reactions the Christian can and should take to America’s moral mess.

There are two extreme reactions that many Christians have defaulted to as realization of America’s moral mess has grown over the past decades. The first extreme is interaction isolation. Many devoted Christians have taken as their motto, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” (2 Cor 6:14) or “bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Cor 15:33). These well-intentioned brothers and sisters in Christ have eliminated most interaction opportunity with “the world” except that which is essential (workmates, unbelieving family, and general public passing). Their social lives are completely centered around the church, they seek to protect their children from “the world” through isolation, their evangelism encounters are rarely built on meaningful relationship, and their primary experiences of “the world” are through the lenses of social media, visual media, and the news. To interaction isolationists almost all non-Christians are too different for meaningful interaction. All though they may not frame it in exactly these terms the message they send is, “They must first come to Christ before we have enough common ground to stand on together.”

The other extreme reaction is that of interaction immersion. This group of Christians holds as their motto, “This man [Jesus] receives sinners and eats with them,” (Lk 15:2) or “Judge not, lest you be judged,” (Matt 7:1). These Christians overly immerse into “the world.” They often find themselves wrestling with the values of scripture in its “questionable” cultural interpretations. Their desire to be relevant to “the world” has caused them to press the grey areas of questionable Christian living and character. Interaction immersionists have approached the gospel in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” In Bonhoeffer’s elaboration of cheap grace, he defined it as, “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” A strong sense of empathy and inclusiveness often dominates this group. A numbness to sin can sometimes be developed and they often look around to find Christian leaders who are willing to adopt deconstructionist teaching in order to justify controversial or sinful behaviors.

Interaction insulation is the middle ground between interaction isolation and interaction immersion. As a middle ground interaction insulationists advocate for both maintaining meaningful relationships with non-believers, but also meaningful boundaries to ensure costly grace is not cheapened. There are times in the lives of a believer when more insulation is needed against cultural trends damaging biblical authority and faithfulness. There are also strategic relationships with non-believers which contain depth and gospel investment without compromising one’s own witness to Christ. Keep tuned for Pt 2 for seven appropriate reactions which interaction insulationists can take.