Ghettoized Christians?

Christians are called to be "in the world, but not of it" - many, however, seem to be choosing not to be "in" the world either. What that means is that more and more Christians are culturally segregating themselves from the rest of society. They go to Christian stores, they associate with Christian friends, they go on Christian cruises, and they use Christian media - and nothing else. There are certainly many advantages to this, but there are at least as many dangers as well.

The advantages that Christians will see include, obviously, the ability to avoid the sex, violence, and vulgarity that pervade so much of modern culture, the ability to more easily exercise Christian values, and the ability to support Christian-oriented businesses. There are, however, problems as well:

Not even conservative Christians agree about how much separation is good. Some say isolation from the mainstream threatens the evangelical Christian belief that faith in Jesus Christ as savior is meant to be shared with non-believers. Signing on for a Christian cruise or joining rock-climbers for Christ may mean those intent on saving souls are preaching to an already-committed choir.

And that’s not all: the more evangelical Christians cut themselves off from the rest of society, the less they will be able to understand and relate to that society. This will not only impede their ability to share their ideas and values with others, but it will also create a greater sense of us vs. them — in other words, the separation could lead to greater polarization and stigmatization.

The fact is, we all must live in the same society and under the same laws; if too many Christians are no longer able to understand their non-Christian neighbors, how will the two groups be able to unify for common causes, much less be able to agree on even mundane social and political issues?

 

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