Category: Engaging the Culture

“In the first place, there is nothing wrong with observing what used to be a pagan holiday—after all, we used to be pagans. Many of our innocent customs used to have pagan associations—the use of wedding rings, meeting someone for lunch on Thor’s Day, and blowing out the candles on a birthday cake after making a wish. We ought not to be uptight about such things. Who was Paul’s brother, companion, and fellow soldier? Why it was Epaphroditus, whose name means that he was dedicated to the pagan goddess of copulation (Phil. 2:25). Why didn’t Paul make Epaphroditus change his name? The answer is that it was not that big a deal.”

The Cultural Mind, p. 307

“The man who buries his talent in the ground, after a very careful risk analysis, is the man rebuked by the ‘hard’ master. The man desperate for respect is often the one who does not receive it, while the one who strives for excellence as defined by God in heaven—he stands before kings (Prov. 22:29). In the kingdom of God, the one who would be great must become the least of all. The one who would rule must serve. The one who wants praise must not care about praise.”

The Cultural Mind, p. 303

“Modern Christians are constantly exhorted to care. This is legitimate, indeed, it is inescapable. But the problem is that we are told regularly to care about all the wrong things. ‘If we continue to maintain that God created the world in six days, we will not be granted academic respectability.’ To which we must reply, ‘Well, who cares?’ Why should we care that the guardians of the academy believe we are not academically respectable? They believe that the moose, the sperm whale, and the meadowlark are all blood relations. Why do we want their seal of approval?”

The Cultural Mind, p. 302

“When the church is unsubmissive to Christ, it becomes submissive to the world. ‘Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God’ (Jas. 4:4). Conversely to be submissive to Christ is the same thing as becoming uppity to the demands of the world.”

The Cultural Mind, pp. 299-300

“We start fussing, in a self-important kind of way, about the problems of extremes and excesses. Of course. There is a counterfeit boldness that might be called ‘worldview machismo.’ And there is a counterfeit humility that might be called ‘worldview effeminacy.’ But rebuking us all, there is a faith that wonders in a loud voice why the uncircumcised Philistines are being allowed to talk the way they do.”

The Cultural Mind, pp. 298-299