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the culture war metaphor examined
Our brains manage meaning by the use of metaphor, comparing one thing to another so as to illuminate the other. Jesus did the same with his parables: revealing the unknown kingdom by the known mustard seed, sower, pearl of great price, daft woman who lost a coin, grieving father. We are ruled by the metaphors we embrace. Jesus said, “If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross daily, and follow me.” Carrying a cross, a beam of wood used to execute criminals, is the metaphor he chose to illuminate what it means to be his disciple. To be his disciple is to accept this metaphor. It is time for us to critically examine a metaphor offered to us in recent years to illuminate what it means for Christians to engage the surrounding culture: the metaphor of war, and it’s application by the Religious Right, that to be a faithful disciple of Jesus is to be a culture warrior.
We come by this metaphor honestly. We’re sitting ducks for it, actually. Because the metaphor that rules our understanding of what it means to argue is “Argument is War.” Sound extreme? Consider our language: we “win” or “lose” arguments. We “marshal” arguments. We “defend” our “positions.” We “skewer” our “opponents” with a good argument. We “shoot down” a lousy argument. Someone “pokes a hole” in what we’re trying to assert. It’s not an accident that these are all words attached to warfare.
This metaphor–Argument is War–profoundly affects the way we conceptualize and engage in arguments. For many of us arguments stimulate the “fight and flight” system of the brain. We get riled up when we argue. For some it’s invigorating, for others it’s unnerving. The fact that we view argument through the lens of the warfare metaphor affects us deeply. As Lakoff and Johnson, the authors of Metaphors We Live By wonder: how would we argue differently if we believed “Argument is a Dance”?
who declared the culture war?
Who declared the culture war? And who commissioned the disciples of Jesus to engage it as culture warriors?
So far as I know, the phrase first appeared with Thomas Huxley, known as Darwin’s bulldog. He was an ardent supporter of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and wanted to use it to dislodge the Church of England from its position of cultural authority. In more recent times, Pat Buchanan, an aide to Richard Nixon and later Presidential candidate made his famous “We’re in a Culture War” speech at the Republican National Convention in 1992.
Thomas Huxley, Pat Buchanan–note what names those are not: Jesus of Nazareth. When did Jesus of Nazareth call us to view ourselves as culture warriors engaged in a culture war?
He commissioned us to proclaim the good news to every nook and cranny of creation.
He was surrounded by a pagan power–the Roman Empire. Yet he reserved his most potent broadsides for the religious leaders of his day.
War may be necessary at times, but it is a lousy metaphor for the way we are called to interact with our neighbors. War makes us stupid. War forces us to suspend the Golden Rule. War drowns out the Sermon on the Mount. War requires that we dehumanize ourselves and our enemies for the time it takes to abolish them or be abolished by them.
Are we going to have sharp disagreements with our neighbors about right and wrong and how to spend our tax revenue and who should serve in what position? Yes. But is “war” the way we are called by Jesus to engage those disagreements?
have we been duped?
Is it possible that we’ve been duped? Is it possible that powers and principalities that inhabit the political parties of our day–which by definition are partisan and which tend to the raw will to power–have used this metaphor to appeal to the followers of the Prince of Peace, so as to enhance their own power?
I wonder, did Martin Luther King, Jr. ever employ the culture war metaphor in his just cause for civil rights? If ever there were a man with a right to use the metaphor it would have been him.
No doubt he spoke of the battle for civil rights. But his usual language, if I’m correct, was “struggle.” A great evil needed to be overcome through a great struggle. Something other than a war.
He was a wise man, and he got results.
What have we gotten with our culture war?
It’s time to turn our backs on the culture war.
It’s time to question the metaphor, to dislodge it’s rule in our hearts.
Lest we win a war and lose our souls.
Tags: culture war, golden rule, martin luther king jr., metaphor, pat buchanan, sermon on the mount, thomas huxley
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
War is easy. Love is hard.
(That’s how I’ve come to rationalize this.)
We almost need to reteach people what agape means. After many, many years of individualism in society, the culture, and the church, there isn’t really this sense of common good any longer. It’s so bad that on the streets of Ann Arbor, when I smile or nod, often I get a rude stare in return. I’m an unassuming, schoolmarmish-looking lady, so it can’t be that they’re afraid.
We need a sense of community again, a sense that “we’re all in this together”. I think once that happens, we’ll see the Culture Wars end.
Of course, this is all in Ecclesiastes — the seasons are turning in our national and local history once again, and winter is here. It’s pretty difficult to be a lone ranger during a time of crisis. We are going to have to learn how to live together again. I look forward to a time when I know my neighbors and they know me. There’s a foretaste of that at Vineyard — I kinda think of it the church equivalent of “Cheers” for me. (I’m probably not Diane. Probably Norm — or Norm’s daughter.
)
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 am
arise…awaken o sleeper from sleepwalking through life by metaphors foisted upon you by others who are not Jesus…
great, great post ken!!
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Yes. Thank you. What sort of a movie are we in, anyway? We followers of Jesus? Are we in a war movie? Or some form of tragedy? Some form of comedy? What is the movie or theater genre that best fits with what Jesus has asked us to do?
Ken, you’re on to something here. Keep this line of reasoning going. Let’s all try to reason as the Holy Spirit would have us reason. Let’s reason by metaphors that Jesus has given us or would approve.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
I’ve been trying to tune out this “war” for quite some time, having grown increasingly uncomfortable with the confrontational posture Christians are all but expected to have in the cultural-political arena. I agree with what you’ve been saying in this series of posts…
The problem is that despite my best efforts, the battle is just too noisy. Whether watching cable news, talking with coworkers, or even (especially) just hanging around with certain followers of Jesus… it seems to be almost everywhere. Some places more obvious than others. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive to it. Or maybe it is because I live in a comparatively conservative town. A lot of people seem to be attached to this agenda of war-like cultural engagement. Even some people in my generation, my friends. Not everyone, or even most. But some. And these are still people that I care about.
It almost seems that, if I’m to love the world the way God does… it gets harder to get along with many of the faithful in the church. And that bothers me.
So most of the time I just keep quiet about it (hard to avoid an argument with culture-warriors), though something somewhere in my gut is unsettled….
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
It’s not like there’s no talk of war in the NT. The interesting thing to me is that the war it talks about is REAL and not metaphorical, but the plane of engagement is largely invisible to the natural eye and the enemies are not human beings. Unfortunately, we don’t conceptualize that very well and we always seem to slip slide into treating people who are under the influence of the enemy as enemies themselves.
And it’s not like there’s nothing to confront at the person to person level, either. There are certainly plenty of examples of Jesus getting confrontational with human beings who were furthering enemy purposes. But it seems to me that western Christians by and large don’t get what “love your enemy” means. I think Christians in countries where they are persecuted and endangered because of their faith sometimes understand it much better. And they don’t seem to get as sidetracked by mere cultural issues either.
Why don’t you delve into the “love your enemy” mandate and do a sermon series? That would be way cool.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I do not attend Vineyard Church, I have visited a few times, I surf the site from time to time, and I found this to be most interesting about the Culture War and how it’s being examined. I for one always see us as Christian’s in a culture war; whether we like to admit it or not. We are soldiers/warriors for Christ, he was the ultimate solider/warrior when he took on the battle of Sin and became so for our deliverance in sealing our salvation, by his war on the Cross of Calvary, his victory in that war!. We are winners of the cultural war we are the light in the darkness of a dead world system.
When I read the comments of how people perceive “war”, the culture war, or if we should be acknowledging war, as part of being Christ followers; I was somewhat amazed and kind of bewildered. About it being all about this time, we are living in, the time Martin Luther King lived in, or any time. I see war, culture war, etc, as something that Christians and the followers of Christ will always be in and time doesn’t matter. Yet, Wars really have many faces, secular wars, fleshly wars, and spiritual wars. We as his children are always in a war, and to me the “culture war” mentality is for us and for us to understand. We are to remember, his word says Matthew 10:35, 36 – “Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I come to set a man at variance” The believer against the non-believers; our culture war.
“Carrying a cross, a beam of wood used to execute criminals, is the metaphor he chose to illuminate what it means to be his disciple. To be his disciple is to accept this metaphor.” I agree, and to carry his Cross is not that bad thing that happens to you, the accident, illness, pain, the breakup. These are attacks, things he’s healed, bore and conquered on the Cross. To carry his Cross is to be as the new commandment he gave us; Love one another; as I have loved you, love one another. To walk in the fruits of the spirit, he says for as you are in this world, I am.
This is where our culture war comes in, loving in God’s love not only in Phileo or Eros, the secular humanist love, the romantic emotional, and yes, sad as it is, the conditional kind of love, but loving in Agape love, the pure form of love that is unconditional, and may be expressed in the filial or familial.
Trying to extend that love to others, strangers, on our pathways, while we are still only human in a world of darkness is a war in its self. We war ourselves, to give it, we are at war, for those to receive it. We have it to give; the world on the other hand does not always want this love, sometimes, your brethren (weak, lacking in understanding, strayed, etc…) do not want this love. They want to place restriction on your love, if you believe the bible, the word of God, and they do not, you cannot love them, they feel you do not even understand them. If you do not succumb to being a people pleaser then they do not believe the love of God is even in you. If you cannot see this as a culture war, what is? We have a culture all our own in God’s love. So, we try to reach them without compromise and show love without judgment, and even when this is accomplished, by only God’s Holy Spirit can it be, it is sometimes not received because it does not fit the worlds view of love.
I didn’t mean to go on and on. I’ve been fighting my culture world a long time, and I will be fighting as long as I’m in this earthy vessel and on this earth planet. Remember Real love is a choice. It’s an act that we participate in because love is a choice; love is how we are capable of forgiveness. I hope you accept this in love.
See, I think War is hard, and to Love is easy and it is work, that can be hard. God is love, yet, in his love we have war.
Oh, and to Steven’s question what movie genre, I think “Surrender” surrender oneself to Christ; see the “combat terminology” is throughout the whole bible in metaphors, soldiers in Christ, fight the good fight, laid down his life…
Be Blessed,
Jill
December 4th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
In a typical old fashion battle there are two sides….but I think Jesus provided a third way that I have yet to fully unravel.
On an unrelated note my middle aged next door neighbor, who happens to live with her female partner, shoveled my side walk after this week’s snow. I probably should note that I am a 28 year old and former athlete who is very capable of pushing a shovel. I was humbled by the love God demonstrated through her sacrifice for our family. Maybe we can engage in a Culture Lovefest. Jesus seemed to love people into the kingdom, not engage them in battle. Just some thoughts…let’s keep grappling together.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I love words. Words matter. So I hope the previous commenters will excuse me if I seem pedantic. Ken’s post is a about “culture war”, not war per sé. Martha and Jill are correct to point out that the New Testament talks of war, but as Martha points out, the battle it speaks of is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities, spiritual forces of darkness.
Culture, on the other hand, is primarily a human construct. Cultures are formed and developed and nurtured by people. Some might argue that because the powers and principalities tend to latch on, and even seemingly energize certain cultural constructs, that this legitimizes the use of war as a metaphor with culture.
The problem is that few people are very good at separating out the people from the principality, if you will. Furthermore, I don’t see any examples of Jesus engaging in this type of culture war. In fact, I think you could point to the parable of the tares and the wheat as a strong admonition against culture warring. Starting shooting at the culture and you’re likely to loose some wheat.
Just some thoughts.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Commenters, Oh I am liking this conversation. I would love to hear from more post readers. Especially you relative moderates. There is so much loud, incessant promotion of the culture war metaphor that I think we who don’t accept it as a ruling metaphor for our discipleship to Jesus have a responsibility to say so–calmly, gently, but assertively. And for Jill, thanks for you post. I agree wholeheartedly with Bob’s response. Words matter. So do metaphors. And metaphors need to be treated with car. Every metaphor highlights something and hides something. For example Paul does use the soldier metaphor in his letter to Timothy, but the thing he is highlighting is the need for Timothy to endure hardship like soldiers do, or to discipline himself, like soldiers do, not to kill people as soldiers sometimes have to. The metaphor highlights some things and hides others. Is the point of Jesus coming to draw his followers into a culture war with secular culture–as Jill suggests, the believers pitted against (good war language) the unbelievers. No, actually I think Jesus came to befriend us unbelievers, us enemies of God in order to make believers and friends of God. War is almost the exactly incorrect metaphor in this case. Peace is much closer to the heart of Jesus. Blessed are the peacemakers, or blessed are the war makers? Well both of those metaphors (peace and war) can be found in the bible. We need discernment about how each is applied. My discernment tells me that the culture war metaphor has been subject to massive and dangerous misapplication.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
is your comment about war and peace leading to a long, drawnout sermon series using tolstoy’s “war and peace” as the metaphor? just kidding
seriously, what i want to embrace in your comment above is your following Christ through identification with unbelievers and enemies of God…you are a man after God’s own heart mr. wilson…
i know i am much more inclined to be one who shies away from or is suspicious of the use of war as a metaphor for action, even though i need to be challenged to be more balanced in applying the good (as you pointed out that paul did with timothy)…so how about this piece of wordcraft as my metaphoric wardance:
wearisome world
worrisome groan
this life of voodoo
bitter taste in my bones
chicory is the tint
of this world…nothing new
yet still striving my strained eyes
to glance something askew
shiny is the prophet of main street slang –
itching ears to be scratched
by a lying spirit
with fangs
a tongue from of old
practiced in deceit
words flung like dry bones
cast by a houngan on bourbon street
yet his bones they are silent
no clarity to be found
the present no-more-so
eyes turn toward the ground
then heard is a rumbling
and a shaking that confounds
as saints march forth
a new hope that astounds
angelic is the battle
that looms overhead
His Presence rushing forth
as we rest in our beds
the wicked ones – they flee
at His Presence announced
while others in awe
marked with Beauty pronounced
the symmetry of karma
is wrecked by Another
this shattering Grace
of the Alpha and Omega
no more the brittle bones
do they break beneath me
the old marrow reborn
new Spirit fills deeply
like a heaping spoonful of beans
poured over steaming rice
His Presence rushing forth
filled with new spice
fresh mojo in my bones
a vitality springing forth
the taste of new life
embraced beyond and always thenceforth
December 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Having recently returned from a skirmish in the culture war, this is particularly timely for me. Actually, it was a case of friendly fire. I think I’ve escaped unscathed. But it has me thinking more and more, how can we move away from the culture war metaphor that can be so destructive within our own camp, as well as so alienating to the “enemy” that we are supposed to love?
I think it’s a little like saying to Republicans and Democrats, “Just be more bi-partisan.” Well, the problem is that there are real differences! People aren’t just going to abandon them. The culture war is about something. If I’m remembering one video I’ve seen about it, it says clearly, “Children are the booty of this culture war.” And I tend to agree–most Christians involved with this see the hearts and minds of their children at stake. There are other big issues, too, but when you involve the kids, the stakes get really high.
So now you have two dynamics–the culture war metaphor, and the other evangelical/fundamentalist tendancy to retreat from the world. I think they go hand-in-hand. This is the way most folks think they must protect their young–retreat from the world to some degree, shelter the kids, and fight back when necessary.
I’m much less enamored of the culture war metaphor than I used to be, but I think the issues are stake in the “war” are legitimate ones. To just say to people, “War is bad and un-Biblical–call a truce”–well, it probably isn’t going to work. We need another approach. How do we still care about the issues involved in the “war” and do something about them? Is there a replacement metaphor? A way for people to work constructively on these issues? I have a few inklings of my own, but I’m interested in your ideas, Ken, as well as others.
December 6th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Fair enough…we can call it a ‘culture struggle’. Would you also propose the ‘war on drugs’ be the ‘drug struggle’ and the ‘war on poverty’ be the ‘poverty struggle’?
Seems like much ado about very little to me, but I can go along with ‘culture struggle’
We might also consider calling it ‘culture defense’ as much that Christians are accused of fighting over is really just an attempt to hold off the advance of ungodly agendas. Are the warriors really the Christians trying to preserve things such as traditional marriage, or those who seek to overturn the traditional and biblical meaning of marriage? Are the warriors really those who work on behalf of the unborn or those who fight against any restrictions on abortion whatsoever? Are the warriors really those who would like to preserve some of our Judeo-Christian heritage within our educational system or those who seek to remove every vestige of that heritage from education?
Christians can stand against ungodly agendas while at the same time reaching out with the love of Christ to individuals who are ‘ripe for the harvest’.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Wow, Sarah’s post struck a cord in me that revealed once again that I do have skin in the culture game…or war..or now struggle. When I consider subjecting my children to the culture we live in I start to cringe and I strongly desire another option. It’s like I don’t want to send them to public school, but I don’t want to pay for private school, and home schooling seems to be a burden that my wife is not ready for, nor wanting to bare (and I can’t blame her). Grrrrrr…I preferred just ignoring the culture game for my own sake, but I don’t think it will be that easy with two little baby chicks in the nest right now. I guess I still have the hope that a third way will be unveiled….maybe it will come in the form of me staring my own charter school
December 9th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Hey, I like this thread! We’ve got some honest to goodness Christians in here. Love? Well, heck yes! Forgiveness, heck yes! Why not? We’re in great company.
December 12th, 2008 at 4:34 am
I thank you for reading and allowing my “understandings” to be posted, as I have received it to share. I by no means am a moderate, I have been “fired up” in Christ, I have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the spirit, and the tongue being one of them. I cannot look inside, be true, and call myself a moderate. I’m excited about what he’s done for me.
First off, I feel so misunderstood about the “culture war” comments. The title of the blog was “the culture war metaphor examined.” I was sharing only my views of what it could mean. I personally do not care if the word is used or not, it just is what it is…My reference to it was in fact not specifically toward the secular system. I was merely trying to say as Christians and as peculiar people that makes us a culture in ourselves.
In James chapter 4, is what I am trying to say, especially in verse 5.kjv “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusted to envy”. It seems I am not very good at making my point of explanation understood in writing, for this, I apologize if I have offended or confused anyone on what they believe are my own perceptions of “Culture War”. My reference was, as bob explained, in spiritual terms of the principalities and powers we battle, and the battles we also battle in our flesh in our walk in the spirit.
In response, “No, actually I think Jesus came to befriend us unbelievers, us enemies of God in order to make believers and friends of God.” I agree on the premise of what you are saying for love and peace.
I believe Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, came and was sent here, to a sin-filled world because too many of God’s own were being sent to hell not being able to live under the law; for the fall of Adam that separated them from him. I see the love and mercy, in our lord here… In addition, he has paid the penalty once and for all to restore his relationship with his creation, fallen man, and in doing so he had to be obedient to the Cross. This I see, as a war of the flesh, the mind, and the spirit. As for the statement of it not being in the bible “I don’t see any examples of Jesus engaging in this type of culture war” an example from the bible, my reference was, the culture of the times was afraid of our Lord to the point they crucified him. He had a war there, it lead to the cross and in the obedience of Jesus, to the Father, by surrendering his will, this created in all those that believe on him a culture in its own, of love. Yes, to give grace unto the believer, by faith and build his Church, whom are suppose to be his soldiers in Christ, ambassadors of Christ to proclaim the gospel message to the dark, evil, sin-filled world without separation from God. A fight, a battle and a war, even though we can do this in love, we still have this situation to contend with, as he had his, on the cross.
Ok, I do not necessarily agree completely that culture is primarily a human construct, not for the Christian, if you are thinking in secular terms, yes. . Webster’s online definition of “culture” had this to say. . (d:) The set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic. (c) The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization . My definition, input…
I think we who don’t accept it as a ruling metaphor for our discipleship to Jesus have a responsibility to say so–calmly, gently, but assertively. I agree… I’m only saying it is explaining discipleship, at its core.
“Timothy to endure hardship like soldiers do, or to discipline himself, like soldiers do, not to kill people as soldiers sometimes have to. The metaphor highlights some things and hides others. War is almost the exactly incorrect metaphor in this case”. Upon reading this response, I was lead to Mathew 11:12. I am sure you know the one I am speaking about “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. This force is a violent grace, no doubt! (A good read is Michael Card’s, “A violent Grace”.)
“Is the point of Jesus coming to draw his followers into a culture war with secular culture–as Jill suggests, the believers pitted against (good war language) the unbelievers.” Again, Please do not misunderstand me here, it was not meant to be secular as in physical, only in the piercing spiritually the darkness of the unbeliever as referenced earlier in Matthew 10, speaks of those against each other. I don’t know if you’re familiar with a Christian saying, “Born to Raze Hell”, meaning \Raze\, v. To destroy to demolish, to obliterate, ruin, strike out, tear down.” For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy (Raze) the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8; Clearly, a spiritual warfare, some could call the bottom line of this “corporate focus” of people in Christianity, a culture; and what we do in our fight of good faith in our battles of hardship, against our own natural desires and flesh, we war… Webster’s version of War (b:) a struggle or competition between opposing forces or for a particular end and people, God’s word said, “They will hate you because they hated me”, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Operate in the sword of the spirit, the shield of faith, and sod in preparation of the gospel.
For remember, He said whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Do you see that even though he is Peace and Love and has died for all, he has, and will war? Sin will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!
So, it is true some of us (born again children of Jesus) are different in our relationships, in our love, devotions, and discipleships to Jesus, that doesn’t make us wrong, that makes us different, and kind of saying the same thing in a different way. I see that as a good thing, because there is a big dark world full of different people to reach for the gospel.
Thank you for sharing your thougths and feelings, I felt compelled to respond, feeling you defiantly misread my point.
Be blessed,
Jill
December 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Jill, Thanks for your post–very thoughtful comments. Mt. 11:12 is one of my favorite sayings of Jesus. Ken