Doctrine vs. Culture

We have a million sayings for it – can’t see the forest for the trees; there’s a mote in your eye while there’s a beam in mine; judge not lest ye by judged. You get the picture. But I guess in the end, it all comes down to one thing – us and them. We see ourselves as faultless, although we would never admit that, we’re too humble. We would deny it all. No, no, we have faults too, we would say. But in our hearts we don’t believe it. We think we’re better than them. We think it’s our right to judge. It’s okay, because they are wrong, they are uncivilized, they don’t understand equality and justice like we do. They’re lucky we’re over there, teaching them about democracy. We can’t understand why they don’t just fix their damn country. It’s obviously broken. It’s hard sometimes to see the forest for all the trees.

There have been countless experts, numerous television programs, news pieces, documentaries, explaining the religion of Islam, explaining this religion of peace, but to no real avail to the general American public. “Well!”, we say, in our uppity know it all voice, “If THAT’S their religion, why don’t they LIVE it? Obviously they don’t believe it, or they wouldn’t be killing us would they?” And then we nod emphatically and knowingly and condescendingly as if that, my friend, is the end of that. You see that mote right there, yea, that one, why don’t you pluck it out? It’ll help you see better.

We often don’t think about the difference between religion and culture. Religion teaches us how we SHOULD be living, and culture teaches us how to live. Culture sometimes overshadows religion. Sometimes its fueled by religion, sometimes it forgets it all together. But we often get ambushed by culture, the things we do, the things our fathers and their fathers father’s did, and it grows into a kind of religion on its own. It grows into some amalgam that we call religion, or if not religion, we feel like we have a very good reason for it all. We acknowledge that our actions are not in line with what was taught, but our reasons for not living it sound so good, so right, so traditional, that we ignore the very fact that we’re breaking our own religion.

Let’s talk about the idea of peace. It seems like peace is a valuable commodity these days; some would say peace has always been a valuable commodity. Violence seems to have been with us from the beginning. Some would argue violence is part of our programming, we can’t help but be violent, it’s in very our nature, we’re built for it. And yet we revere those who speak of peace. We hang posters on our walls of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Einstein and others who promoted peace in the past. And we laugh at, even jeer at, those who suggest it now. Pie in the sky we say. Ludicrous we say. Can never happen until those people change their ways. WE want peace, it’s them that are causing all the problems. Once they stop, we’ll stop. Peace is impossible for us because of our enemies.

And yet, when I read the Bible, I read a book about peace. Not just a spiritual peace, something that’s possible once I die, but peace here, peace now. When I read about Jesus’ life I read about a man not just at peace with himself, but at peace with the world, and even at peace with those who would do him harm. He never raised his hand to anyone. He never ordered anyone to be hurt. He never wanted to hurt anyone. In fact the opposite seems to be true. When Jesus talked about our enemies he said to forgive them. He said when we get attacked to allow the enemy to attack you again. He said to pray for those who hurt you. He said to be meek and humble. He said that peace was what he brought to us. Peace.

It’s also interesting that he never talked about violence. He never talked about incidents where it might be all right to defend oneself. He never talked about exceptions to the rule – you know, “I say unto you that if your enemy strikes you a third time it is given unto you to strike them in order that you might live.” Nope. He never said it. He never gave permission to defend your family. He never said we could defend our homes or our lands or our country. He said forgiveness was the way to Truth. And it wasn’t normal everyday forgiveness, or forgiveness in the form of if your enemies do this then its okay to forgive them. Nope, it was forgiveness always, forgiveness forever. When should we forgive? We ask. Always. Answers Jesus. Seven times seven. Forty nine times you should forgive those who wrong you. Once your enemy has wronged you forty nine times then it’s possible it might be time to attack them, hurt them, drive them into the ground, or defend yourself. Perhaps on incident number fifty you don’t have to turn the other cheek.

Jesus’ whole ministry was about forgiveness and peace and acceptance. Now, I’m sure you’re steaming by now. Saying things like, “That’s ridiculous!” and “But…!” and “Now hold on!”. You’re defending all the past and current acts of aggression instigated by you and your country as fair and right and good. You want all the things you have done, all the things your country has done, to be right and in keeping with Christ’s teachings. And I’m saying you can’t. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be aggressive and a good Christian. You can’t judge the culture of others and still keep in harmony with Christ’s teachings. You can’t be at perpetual war with your enemies and still hope to have the blessings of your Savior. You can be a great nation at war, a warrior of great reknown, a nation feared by the world, but you cannot also be a great Christian nation. Peace and forgiveness is the way of Christianity; anything else is false.

Often we confuse culture with religion. Culture fills our lives everyday; it fills in the gaps of immediacy that religion sometimes misses. It infiltrates our ideal ways of living with the practical necessities of life. Culture is the pragmatist to religions optimist. Culture tells you how things actually are, while religion tells you how they ought to me. Your culture tells you that aggression, during times of war are justified. Your religion tells you to turn the other cheek. Your culture tells you your enemies must be destroyed. Your religion tells you to pray for your enemy; pray for them who despitefully use you. Your culture tells you that sometimes war is the only option. Your religion tells you that forgiveness is required of you always. Your culture tells you that strength is the answer to our problems. Your religion tells you that the meek shall inherit the earth. Culture and religion are often at odds but must not be confused for each other.
We must decide between, and be aware of, the two often opposing sides of culture and religion. We must decide to be peaceful. We must decide to forgive. We must decide to not to judge. And once we are living the way our religion commands, then we must be willing to accept the consequences that come from those choices. Will we be attacked more often? Possibly. Will we be abused and beaten? Maybe. Will we be taken advantage of, humiliated and possibly killed? Probably. But it is what we’ve been commanded to do. Jesus told us to be peaceful under all circumstances, and this is what we must do.

Now, if you believe that war is the answer, that keeping our enemies at bay with violence is the way to a brighter future, I understand and respect that point of view. Nations have lived at peace, free of harm and external aggression by living by that philosophy. I cannot fault someone for this belief. Defending what we love and cherish with the threat of, or actual aggression is completely understandable. What I’m suggesting is, you can’t call yourself a Christian while fomenting the destruction of your enemies. You cannot be warlike and Christ-like at the same time. You must choose. The culture of war and aggression and blood, or the religion of peace and love and forgiveness are choices at two ends of the poles. The two are incompatible.

The culture of war cannot stand with the religion of Christ. We must not confuse or mix the two. The two must be sussed out and seen clearly for what they are, different and opposing philosophies. War may, at times be necessary, but it can never be Christian, especially when we are the aggressor. We must understand that sometimes, often, religion and culture are mixed and misunderstood and misused for each other. And we must be very careful when we judge other countries or cultures harshly for not living their own religion because we aren’t living ours. Mote and beam. Jesus said something like, “Don’t be judging others for their faults because we have a few of our own and you will be judged in the same way that you judge. So watch out.” Or something like that. It’s time we lived our religion and take the consequences. Living a Christ-like life is the ideal; being at war isn’t even the ideal.