Us vs Them

It seems like the underlying topic from all our classes so far has been about this us vs them mentality. The church vs the world. Good and perfect vs evil and lost.

I don't know much when it comes to the culture of American churches but I have seen some similarities with what Professor Leeper was saying with my church back home. It seems the problem is with the church's mindset to separate themselves from the 'secular' things (I put secular in quotation because Professor Leeper says he didn’t believe in the secular, which I’ll probably explore in another post).

It seems the majority of Christians, as they get saved, want to forget ever being ‘lost’. Even though they are still discovering each day the new way of life that Jesus laid out for us (can I even say ‘new’ way? It is technically the old way- the way God had predestined from the beginning). I like how Professor Leeper put it (which is saying a lot because I don’t usually fully agree with what he says). Disclaimer: I’m quoting him very loosely, but the essence of it I believe was this; we as humans are still searching for who we are- we forgot who we are supposed to be because of sin, we are no longer living the lives God has purposed for us.

It’s not hard to find Christians who put up a face like they have it all figured out. How are we as Christians supposed to connect with those who don’t believe if we see ourselves as above them? What right do we have to separate ourselves from those who haven’t chosen Christ and say we are better? It reminds me of Phil. 2:5-8:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

It’s a real challenge for me to not use my salvation as a power play,"I'm better you're not. I'm clean, don't you unclean person touch me!" It seems to make one feel more holy pointing out the flaws in others and yelling at them to change from a far. It's also a challenge to be real with my media, to ask questions that make even me uncomfortable, to open others up to really think about what Christ’s death and resurrection really means and how we are to react to it.

I do believe that believers should be very careful when it comes to the media they feed their mind with. I don’t believe we need to look at outside art to avoid narcissistic mentality, art started in the church, good art. Even to the designs of the temple, and it wasn’t from Israelites looking to the unbelievers for inspiration, it was from direct instructions from God. However I do think it’s important to understand that God didn’t use Pharisees to reveal Jesus but He used ordinary fishermen and ‘secular’ people.