LOOKING for God in secular culture
by J. William Lasater
Photo by Jordan Jarvis
“Our faith is already married to our culture, whether we recognize it or not,” Matt Rindge told me as we sat down in the lobby of a local Holiday Inn. “There’s all these different ways in which we are married to our culture, and yet it’s interesting that, in spite of that, Christians tend to say, ‘We need to be very careful about what we expose ourselves to in terms of the content of films or television shows or books. We need to be very careful that these materials don’t tarnish or negatively affect our faith.’” He continued as he enjoyed an apple he had picked up from the hotel lobby. “We don’t need to have a duality between the sacred and the secular.”
Matt then talked about the Christian perspective apparent in recent films and how, in general, Christians tend to see movies like Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia as wonderful expressions of the Christian faith in secular society. Although these films have a well-known Christian influence, Matt said he finds it ironic that films like Harry Potter have the same spiritual potential as well known “Christian” films, but are often overlooked. “In some ways I think Harry Potter can be seen as more Christian than Lord of the Rings and Narnia because of all the explicit themes, in terms of a woman laying down her life for her son, and that act of love is what explicitly marks the son as being protected.” It’s unfortunate, however, that many Christians view such films more suspiciously because they are not based from renowned Christian thinkers like Tolkien and Lewis. “That’s unfortunate to me because it hinders effective communication with people who don’t ascribe to the Christian faith about issues that are raised in films like Harry Potter.”
There is a passage in Jeremiah 29 where the prophet Jeremiah tells the Israelites exiled in Babylon, “Seek the shalom of the city you are in and in the shalom of the city you will find your shalom.” Here, the prophet is pushing these Israelites to engage their culture in a positive way – even finding their “peace” within it – rather than becoming an inner-monastic community. “It’s a striking challenge for people of any faith, because it says that one’s peace, wholeness, or well-being isn’t found in myself, but in pursuing it for the broader culture of which I’m a part.”
As the conversation and Matt’s apple dwindled down, we talked about the controversial chemical burn scene in the movie Fight Club. In the scene, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, states, “Our fathers were our models for God. Our fathers failed. What does that tell you about God? God doesn’t like you. He didn’t want you, and in all probability He hates you. We are God’s unwanted children, so be it.” We agreed that most Christians would say how horrible and untrue that line is. Matt then brought up a point that intrigued me. He said, “What’s interesting to me is to take a scene like that and say, that sounds so similar to Jesus’ last cry on the cross in Mark and Matthew when Jesus says, ‘My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?’ What Jesus does there is express what is common in the lament psalms in which, rather than praising God, people accuse Him. It’s part of our religion that we don’t give much attention to.” Matt encouraged believers to consider that all art has the potential to have spiritual worth derived from it. God is able to speak through both secular and Christian sources, and truth can be seen through multiple mediums.
When asked about how important it is for Christians to engage their culture in this way, Matt responded, “I think that engaging culture is absolutely essential if you want to just be a healthy human being and, secondly, if you want to dialogue effectively at all with people outside of your box. It’s a non-negotiable. If you want to preach to people, if you want to yell at people, if you don’t care how people respond, then it doesn’t matter. But if you are interested in a dialogue in which you want the other person to listen to what you have to say and take it seriously, then you have to first be willing to listen to them. Listening entails engaging your culture.”
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