Are Cultural Christians Harming Christianity?

[Grace-Like-Rain]

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Reading about statistics on another thread has made me do some more thinking about cultural Christianity and how it might be helping or harming Christianity as a whole. Many people - as many as 74% of Americans (not sure about other nations) - claim Christianity as "their religion".

Wikipedia defines Cultural Christianity as: individuals who identify themselves with Christian culture while not being religious Christians. This kind of identification may be due to family background, personal experiences, the social and cultural environment in which they grew up, etc.

(Even Wiki misses the boat in their explanation, using the term "religious Christians" as a counterpart, which is also misleading. Someone can be religious and still not have a believing faith in Christ. But I digress.)

It would seem that a huge percentage of those labeled "Christians" are simply checking the "Christian" box because it's the best option of those offered.






Cultural Christians often do not even realize that they are not part of the genuine believing Christians of the faith. This makes it very hard to distinguish between the two sometimes, especially in public surveys used for determining things like divorce rates (as OnceFallen mentioned in another thread) or other political or cultural statistics.

Cultural Christians are especially prevalent in the "Bible Belt" areas of the United States, but their numbers seem to be shrinking. I'm wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

On one hand, it is very difficult to truly share Christ with people who already believe that they know Christ. In addition to that, Cultural Christians who are not practicing a godly lifestyle can give Christianity a bad reputation, causing damage to the Church. (Not that believing Christians don't also sometimes fail to live in godly ways - we are all sinners.)

But on the other hand, Cultural Christians have aided the Church in standing firm on some controversial issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage, when otherwise the Church would have been overrun and defeated politically. We have much of our religious freedom here in the U.S. because of the power of Cultural Christians.

Also, from an evangelical standpoint, every bit of exposure someone has to the Gospel is a good thing, right? So Cultural Christians, while not sincere in their faith, are a little closer to that "awakening" of their spirit than they would be otherwise perhaps. (Or, they could simply be desensitized to such things, making them even more hard-hearted...)


Questions:

1. Do you feel that Cultural Christians make up a significant portion of society in your part of the world? Are their numbers growing or shrinking, and why?

2. If so, do you see this as harmful to the Christian community of believers, or is it beneficial?

3. How do Cultural Christians help a community?

4. How do they harm a community?

5. Why do people as a whole have such a hard time realizing that Christianity is not a "cultural" religion that can be latched onto without sincere personal faith?

 

[Jeff_56]

cultural christians is just another name for hypocrites (that jesus called sons of the devil).

do sons of the devil ever offer or do anything good on purpose ?



the penalty for 'cultural' vs 'real' ekklesia is death (eternal death). (as is clear all through the OT and the NT)

 

[JFSurvivor]

hi, I wanna add another question if that's ok....

How does one reach out to these cultural Christians if they believe they are already saved?

 

[JustinFromTwinCities]

This certainly is a massive problem in the modern church. I don't think we can have a conversation on this topic without first considering what is said in 1 Corinthians 5:

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 [a]You have become [b]arrogant and [c]have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and [d]I with you in spirit,with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided to deliver such a one toSatan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord [e]Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.11 But [f]actually, I wrote to you not to associate [g]with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?13 But those who are outside, God [h]judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

 

[Jeff_56]

hi, I wanna add another question if that's ok....

How does one reach out to these cultural Christians if they believe they are already saved?

do you have anything, anything at all , that 'they' (cultural christians, or any other people for that matter),

want ?

 

[Grace-Like-Rain]

hi, I wanna add another question if that's ok....

How does one reach out to these cultural Christians if they believe they are already saved?

Those I've known who became saved said that a major factor in their salvation was the realization that their lives looked nothing like the lives of true Christians they knew personally.

Maybe this is where the church is failing? By not standing up and saying "Hey you. You claim to be a Christian but your fruit is rotten. You need to test yourself to see if your faith is true."

Are we being too soft on cultural Christians? Why is it so difficult to call our self-proclaimed brothers and sisters out in their sin? What would "calling them out" look like? These are often people who aren't involved in a church. Does this need to be done on an individual basis outside of church? How established should we be with such people relationship-wise before attempting to "save their soul" (1st Cor 5:5)? And how CAN we have an established friendship with them if we are instructed not to associate with them?

 

[JustinFromTwinCities]

I have long had these same questions. Can they be saved today? They have heard truth many times, they just don't understand it or don't think it is ultimately important. Without persecution, there is nothing to drive them away from the faith and their misplaced trust. They have convinced themselves or been convinced that they are safe and all is well. If they do not truly desire truth, than they will not seek it and not find it.

What I gather from 1 Corinthians 5 is this: The best thing to do is to expel them from the church, point out their error so they are aware that they are deceived. Then they will realize the follow Satan, they may continue to walk for a time in the flesh before they truly desire the things of God.

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Where it seems to get crazy is that in order for this to happen in many of our modern churches, we are talking about kicking out the majority of believers and those in "leadership" positions lol

This isn't true for all Churches obviously, but in many cases I think it could actually be more fruitful to actually just leave the church yourself. Especially if you are in a mega church

 

[JustinFromTwinCities]

Just start meeting with brothers and sisters outside of the church building maybe. I don't know exactly , every situation is different

 

[JustinFromTwinCities]

Another thing to consider is this - Many churches these days are nothing like they were in the Bible. When people came together in Christs name, they did so more as family. They all shared as they were led by the Holy Spirit, and they met more often than once a week. To consider many of these modern places churches is almost laughable. There is a limited amount of fellowship, its all just about the sermon. So does it even matter if cultural christians are there? You just watch the sermon show, and off you go.

 

[seoulsearch]

Excellent topic, Grace!

One thing I'd like to point out is we have to keep in mind that in many cases, I think society really can't tell much difference between cultural Christians and real Christians because, as you say, they're not familiar with the genuine Christian lifestyle to begin with. In some cases, we are the ones who appear to be hypocritical because of our own shortcomings.

I also think we all have to be very careful about whom we consider to be cultural Christians. What I mean is that we, as practicing Christians, see people who claim Christianity but don't go to church as cultural Christians. However, from my experience, many people who see themselves as "TRUE" Christians are so judgmental of others that they see ANYONE who isn't practicing Christianity IN THE SAME WAY THAT THEY DO as a cultural Christian. If another brother or sister can't quote Scripture as well as they do, debate as fiercely as they do, or be as quick to judge other people as they are, well then, by the fires of hell, what you have here is a cultural Christian who is obviously a hypocrite!

For instance, let's say brother Adam is having a struggle with pornography, sexual addiction, and the party scene. He has a hard time avoiding "the guy talk" at work and, because of his own struggles and often falls right in with the conversations. Every now and then, he goes out with the guys and has a few too many beers. But he's always in church every Sunday.

Now because he wavers back and forth (as we ALL do in some areas of our life), some in the church will call him a cultural Christian. Or let's look at sister Chelsea, the pastor's wife, who struggles with anger and depression. Maybe she chooses to stay home instead of attending a church potluck because she's not feeling well emotionally, and we all know what this will lead to: key members of the congregation will question her dedication to the congregation and the ministry itself and how much of a "Christian" she really is.

I'm sorry I'm not getting to all your questions, Grace, but because we all struggle, there is always someone out there pointing the finger at US and assuming WE are the cultural, or hypocritical Christian.

I could write a 12-page paper and probably not even get to half of your questions, but the thing that stands out to me is, How can we reach others for Christ no matter what state they are in, cultural Christian, dedicated but struggling Christian, or plain old pagan and proud of it?

All I know to do is to try to listen to people, pray for them, and be there for them without automatically judging them or their situation. Christians seem to see other "less Christian" people as vile, purposeless, vicious sinners but the truth is, we have no idea what's going on in their life. They may have been raised in a home that never even talked about Christianity or faith at all, so how can we condemn them or what they're doing? Or what if they've had only negative experiences with Christianity? I've known several people who were sexually abused by people in the ministry when they were children.

I have found that pain seems to be "the great equalizer." EVERYONE goes through painful situations in life--the report from the doctor you didn't want to hear, the loss of someone you love, the financial troubles that are squeezing the life out of your marriage. What happens in my own life is that when people hit rock bottom or are going through a tremendous amount of pain, it gives me a doorway to lend a caring ear and say, "Hey, I was wondering, may I put you on my prayer list at church?" This allows them to know that someone (and Someone else) cares about them AND, it's a small crack in the door that may lead to something even more, such as, "Hey, would you like to go to church sometime? My church has two services... Which one would be more convenient for you? There's a great program for the kids so all you have to do is sit back and unwind for a bit. I'd be happy to pick you up..."

For my own personal definition, I see the term "cultural Christian" as being very relative. To us, the people next door living together who say, "God bless you," are the cultural Christians. To sister Suzie and brother Michael who serve 5 days at church and spend their free time door-to-door evangelizing, I would very much be seen as the cultural Christian.

What I try to ask myself is, "Lord, how can I help someone else make the next step towards knowing you better?" regardless of where they may be. And the amazing thing is that as I get the opportunity to help someone else along their way, God seems to move me right along with them, reminding me that I'm just like them--a sinner saved by grace, and very much in need of my Savior.

 

[CatHerder]

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Questions:

1. Do you feel that Cultural Christians make up a significant portion of society in your part of the world? Are their numbers growing or shrinking, and why?

No. Not in California. But I lived in Texas as well. It seemed that everybody claimed to be Christian there, and among my workmates that claimed to be believer, it was all about positive feelings and secular humanism. In California, when someone claims to be a Christian, it is more likely that they are a true believer.

2. If so, do you see this as harmful to the Christian community of believers, or is it beneficial?

I see it as chaff among wheat. I see that God can still use this. One of the church secretaries at my old church had been a cultural Christian for years, and "fit in" with the church body as a whole rather well. At some point in her career, she realized that she didn't have the same relationship with Christ that her workmates did. She then gave her life to Christ.

3. How do Cultural Christians help a community?

Nonbelievers are capable of being "good" people. They can help the poor, feed the hungry, save lives and do many great humanitarian things. They can even do this with believers in a church group.

4. How do they harm a community?

Another poster mentioned the hypocrisy. There is that. But, one can be relatively moral, attend church, do good things, and not be committed to Christ. If these people are put into church leadership/mentor position, it could promote a "lukewarm" Christianity even among the congregants who are believers.

5. Why do people as a whole have such a hard time realizing that Christianity is not a "cultural" religion that can be latched onto without sincere personal faith?

Particularly in people who grew up in the church or the Bible Belt, if they were brought up in Christian culture, that is a part of who they are. It's easy to speak the Christian-ese, make the horrible casseroles with cream of mushroom soup, strum the guitar, rock out on the drums, raise hands during the cool, emotional part of the trendy praise and worship songs and feel good about the fellowship and even fool oneself into thinking that they really felt the Lord's presence during that awesome praise and worship set.
Growing up in this environment, many really do come to Christ. Many rebel once they are on their own because they never really have made that commitment. I think that many leave, though they may be believers, because church may be too cookie cutter for them (but that's another thread). Still others stay in the church despite never having given their lives to Christ because, fitting in with the Christian culture so well, they may think they are "okay" and have never really been challenged.

I'm finding this more and more with my time among the Lutherans. They tend to be very proud of their heritage (which is great!), but many are Lutherans first and Christians second. Many seem to just be cultural Christians. Still, some seem to be true believers. I am getting more vocal with my own faith as I get to know these people more. Perhaps that is why God got me this church accompanist gig.

 

[seoulsearch]

I'm finding this more and more with my time among the Lutherans. They tend to be very proud of their heritage (which is great!), but many are Lutherans first and Christians second. Many seem to just be cultural Christians. Still, some seem to be true believers. I am getting more vocal with my own faith as I get to know these people more. Perhaps that is why God got me this church accompanist gig.

This is such a powerful, and very accurate statement.

I was raised in the Lutheran church, went to Lutheran schools, with "Lutheran" becoming my spiritual bloodtype. If you were from a pastor or teacher's family, or if you were going into the ministry, YOU WERE IT. People in that category were basically seen as the spiritual elite, and the proudest members were the ones whose families had a an entire generational history of being pastors and teachers.

Which is wonderful. Except that this became more important than the personal relationship with Christ itself, and being part of the ministry was basically seen as being part of the "Bill Gates" status of Christianity. Everyone else was a mere worker bee with not nearly as much important (or clout with God.)

 

[Grace-Like-Rain]

they see ANYONE who isn't practicing Christianity IN THE SAME WAY THAT THEY DO as a cultural Christian.

Ah yes, a very good point... I would define a cultural christian as someone who doesn't have a personal faith in Christ. But what exactly does that even look like? How can we clear away the stereotypes and preconceived notions of what faith looks like, so that we can actually examine FRUIT?

[h=1]Galatians 5:22-23[SUP]
22 [/SUP]But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [SUP]23 [/SUP]gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.[/h]

 

[Jimbone]

hi, I wanna add another question if that's ok....

How does one reach out to these cultural Christians if they believe they are already saved?

That is a great question because this was the case in my life for 5-6 years. I liked the idea of Jesus and thought Christianity was a great belief system, but I had "bills to pay" and "real life" stuff to deal with. Imagine my complete surprise when He saved me and I saw that He is so much more real that this fake, hypocritical, superficial and blind world that we live in. All glory and praise to the Truth of all truths. It really shows me that their are many unsaved that pack "Christian" pews. It's truly terrifying because when I hit my trials in life I didn't even go to God because I thought I had already done that and made my promise. I was literally in shock for weeks after being regenerated by our Lord. I went to church for years before and heard some good truthful preaching, but I never understood the whole literal concept of the Holy Spirit, and had no clue there was a real supernatural side to life. After all we are conditioned from birth from every outlet that God isn't real and everything real can be seen, smelled, collected, measured, etc.... and any supernatural claims can be dismissed offhand without any real consideration, and of course anyone that does believe any of that stuff on any level is just "dumb" or raised that way and brainwashed. It is really scary.

 

[MissCris]

Questions:

1. Do you feel that Cultural Christians make up a significant portion of society in your part of the world? Are their numbers growing or shrinking, and why?
In the corner of Colorado I live in, I think the majority of the people in this area are Cultural Christians. Where I live, we're still "old fashioned" enough that going to church on Sunday is just what's done. Of course there are still plenty of people who don't attend church at all, whether they're Christian or not, but I would say Conservative Christianity is the culture here. I couldn't even hazard a guess at the number of true Christians, though. How can you tell when most of them are doing the same things, volunteering, attending church, basically bearing the same fruit (at least publicly) that you would expect someone who has accepted Christ to bear?
As to whether their numbers are growing or shrinking, it's hard to say- the population of the nearest town keeps slowly increasing, but I don't know how that's affecting the number of Cultural Christians.

2. If so, do you see this as harmful to the Christian community of believers, or is it beneficial?
That's a tough question to answer. As far as things like voting, as you mentioned, I believe it's beneficial, but aside from that I don't know that it really makes much difference to true believers.

3. How do Cultural Christians help a community?
Oh, oops, I kind of already answered that- the voting, and also the volunteering and all that. Even if they're only doing good things for show, or just because that's how things are done here, it's still helpful. They'll have to answer to God for the state of their hearts, but meanwhile, extra hands helping out can't hurt.

4. How do they harm a community?
Thinking more on this, I would say that Cultural Christians are what give true Christians a bad name. When their actions don't line up with what they say they believe, or when they're caught without their "church face" on...well, we see pretty often just here in the Single's forum people wondering why a so-called Christian would do/say this or that. It's confusing and off-putting to non-believers. It makes them harder to reach, because of their bad experiences with "Christians" and churches.

5. Why do people as a whole have such a hard time realizing that Christianity is not a "cultural" religion that can be latched onto without sincere personal faith?
I think some people simply don't understand what true Christianity even is. I think others affiliate themselves with Christianity just because that's what their parents were, or because they don't identify with any other religion. I also think that it's a way to comfort themselves; if they're a good person, they must be a Christian, and if they're a Christian, they're not going to hell, right? I don't know, there are so very many reasons people don't see the Truth, but it all comes down to Satan, doesn't it? Any way he can keep people from accepting Christ, he will. What better way than to give them a false sense of security in their "faith"?

 

[JustinFromTwinCities]

Ah yes, a very good point... I would define a cultural christian as someone who doesn't have a personal faith in Christ. But what exactly does that even look like? How can we clear away the stereotypes and preconceived notions of what faith looks like, so that we can actually examine FRUIT?

Galatians 5:22-23[SUP]
22 [/SUP]But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [SUP]23 [/SUP]gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins[k], go and [l]show him his fault [m]in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every [n]fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as [o]a Gentile and [p]a tax collector.

In order for this to be effective however, I think the church must (for the most part) be of one mind. Big modern churches seem to operate with more of a business model (where more is better) and this may be impossible.

 

[Ugly]

I don't have answers to all, but for question one i think the answer is they are growing. With the rise of the 'seeker friendly' churches, encouraging more non-Christians to come to church while continuing to teach shallow messages that prohibit real growth is a major part of this.
Also, many times, these churches make no effort to encourage change beyond a certain level of perceived morality. Yet also can at times even encourage certain things that may have negative influences spiritually on the congregation. So churches are filling up more and more with non-Christians, or baby Christians who are not being fed spiritually and may even be shown an indifferent or encouraging attitude towards worldly behavior. All of this causes a belief that people are 'Christian' when they are more cultural than spiritual.
In the past the cultural Christian dynamic may have been beneficial, but with churches becoming more and more loose on what they teach about right and wrong, this only serves to promote more sins as being acceptable, or even defensible. So the current sway of things, in my opinion, is this is a huge negative for the church as a whole.

 

[GodIsSalvation]

Whomever is not against us is for us.

 

[zeroturbulence]

cultural christians is just another name for hypocrites (that jesus called sons of the devil).

do sons of the devil ever offer or do anything good on purpose ?



the penalty for 'cultural' vs 'real' ekklesia is death (eternal death). (as is clear all through the OT and the NT)

Believe it or not, we are all hypocrits no matter how much we try to honor God or be like Christ.

Paul himself said this:

"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" - (Romans 7:24 NIV)

..therefore we should not judge others no matter how far along they are on their walk as a christian.

 

[CatHerder]

I'm finding this more and more with my time among the Lutherans. They tend to be very proud of their heritage (which is great!), but many are Lutherans first and Christians second. Many seem to just be cultural Christians. Still, some seem to be true believers. I am getting more vocal with my own faith as I get to know these people more. Perhaps that is why God got me this church accompanist gig.

I hope no one thinks I am Lutheran-bashing here. One can easily substitute Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, or anything else.