When people ask, “What are culture wars?”, what is basically meant by this phrase is when a particular social group tries to impose their beliefs, practices, and ideas on the culture at large. The word “war” is of course used figuratively here because, typically, a war doesn’t take place. But it’s not out of the question that people may end up dead.
Worship leader Sean Feucht has been fighting the culture wars for quite some time now. He’s not the only one. But he is one of the loudest. As an example, you can see below a recent post of his from April 21 in which he espouses his thoughts about Taylor Swift’s new album, which released April 19. To read his full thoughts, click on the Facebook post.
Though I did not know the term “culture wars” at the time, I am reminded of my early days as a Christian as a senior in high school. One night the youth ministry of my church held a “Freedom Night.” We were encouraged to bring all of our worldly stuff and burn it in a huge bonfire. This was to help us become free from those the cultural items that may gain access to our hearts and minds.
I was young in the faith, passionate about following Jesus, and also one with an eschewed understanding of God, run through the grid of my ever-growing perfectionism. And, so, Freedom Night presented an opportunity to do what was “right,” please God, and get rid of all my worldly items.
Certain types of music, movies, books, etc, were all part of the culture of this world. They would taint us.
I was sure God was pleased I had burned all of those items, and especially that I had persuaded my sister to do the same with all her “worldly” items.
You see, this was a strong message coming through week in and week out within the context of my church, and particularly the youth group. Underneath it all was the desire to win the culture, or to be the ones who determined what made up culture – again, from clothing to film to music to literature to education and so much more.
It was part of the culture wars.
Of course, such took place decades before the 1990s when I was in high school, and it most definitely continues into today.
Hence, where someone like Sean Feucht comes in, standing against the “evils” of Taylor Swift’s music. Such must be done, statements must be made, Christians must be stirred into active frenzy over the newest trend within the culture wars. A particular Christian position must be imposed (yes, that’s a strong word, but I believe it’s appropriate) upon society as a whole.
Oh, yes, groups of all types engage is this warring rhetoric. It happens from conservatives and progressives, religious and non-religious, Democrats and Republicans, and many more.
Most desire this kind of action because they desire power. Hence, why I think impose is the appropriate term.
But I am specifically critiquing what Sean Feucht, and so many other Christians do, because this is the family of whom I am part. And I believe it is detrimental to our witness in the present day in which we live.
Yet, whereas a few decades ago, Christians held sway, or power, in society, we no longer do. So the rhetoric seems to grow ever more intense, loud, and repetitive.
But what’s the reason as to why Christians no longer have the authority they once have done?
Because we didn’t stand strong enough in the culture wars, it is argued. We let prayer leave our schools. We allowed our kids to watch certain types of movies and listen to certain kinds of music. We enabled our law courts to be rid of the Ten Commandments. We didn’t vote the right way.
So, now, due to our failures of the past, we must fight ever stronger. And our voices must ring forth even louder, especially now that we have social media.
Yet, let me be clear. I am convinced that Jesus has not asked us to engage in and fight the culture wars. They seem about as far from the Sermon on the Mount as just about anything we Christians can do. We don’t need to “win back America” with certain moral values. Rather, we need to be quiet and lament our unfaithfulness.
Not unfaithfulness regarding what we watch, listen to, or read. But, instead, lament 1) how we have treated minorities of all types (Blacks, Latinos, LGBTQ, etc), 2) our unholy alliances with political parties, and 3) the idolatry of consumerism, materialism, and the like.
These are our actual grave injustices of the past.
So, as we move forward, may we stop investing so much in the culture wars. The early church had no say in Roman culture, but yet they found they could very much live as a faithful people following Jesus. Rather than sound forth in the wars of an era gone by, may we truly learn to be quiet and lament the actual evils we have committed. And, then, perhaps we will have a more humble and compassionate voice to speak in the future.
The Prodigal Thought 
If a Christian is not responsible for the culture of the present, how much less is a Christian responsible for the “actual grave injustices of the past”? To be quite simple, I wasn’t there, so how can I be guilty? To say I am is to define me by identity politics, in this case, an identity imposed upon me by someone who hates me. I am a new creature in Christ. I don’t even carry the guilt of my own sins, so why should I cower under the false guilt of sins committed by others before I was even born? Such a worldview indulges in false piety and self-congratulation while being both impotent and illogical. I most certainly do carry a present obligation to address the culture in which I live. Whatever cultural evil I absolve myself from hating now, I cannot blame upon my descendants when I die.
If Taylor Swift has a right to stand against Christians, I have a right to stand against her. Yet, if I am not mistaken, you are almost implying that Taylor Swift is right to hate Christians and to mock God because present-day Christians have brought rejection upon themselves for allowing evils in centuries past. But this makes no sense. It isn’t Christians that have committed “evils” against minorities. It is hypocrites who professed to be Christian and thousands more who made no profession at all. There were some denominations, to be sure, that embraced slavery, for example, but there were also those who stood staunchly against it and brought an end to it. It is simplistic and patently false to lump the entire “Christian” mindset as collectively guilty of cultural sins. A worldview such as this is nothing but a trick of the mind to discredit historic Christianity altogether and to make the value of a holy lifestyle seems irrelevant, quaint, and somehow sinister.  
Such a mindset would reject politics on the one hand while defining Christianity in entirely social terms on the other. But this woke agenda is wearing mighty thin in our times. All too often, those who reject the “culture wars” are not willing to engage in the spiritual warfare that in itself defines the true Christian’s purpose on earth. We seek here no continuing city. Meanwhile, let us be that light on a hill and point men and women not to culture but to Christ.