This year, my college ministry is doing a series during our large group meeting sessions entitled: Against the Current, When Biblical Truth and Popular Culture Collide. It has a lot to do with how the values and norms of today's culture run counter to how the Bible tells us we should be living our lives.
This title was difficult for me at first. My major is in Comparative Cultures and Politics, which means that I study anthropology, sociology, history, political science, etc. My focus is on comparing the cultural politics of different countries and societies. I've learned in my studies that one's culture shapes who you are. So when our pastor told us that we'd be talking about how bad popular culture is, I was unsettled. This is what I study, now you're telling me that it's of no use to me?
However, as we've gone through different aspects of how the Bible collides with popular culture: in order to live you must first die, in order to be free you must become a servant, in order to receive you must first give, etc, I've learned how God wants us to live in the world but not be of the world.
Those who live by the cultural norms of our society will see me as different, strange, and narrow-minded for following God and obeying His Word. "Where is the cultural relativism?" they will ask, "You should be more cosmopolitan if you are so interested in studying cultures and politics." And while I do believe that cultural relativity and a cosmopolitan ideology is good, these earthly ideas aren't everything. I want to be living for eternity, and in order to do that, I need to follow God.
Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14) There are many views and cultures out there that are valid from a secular perspective. But only one way is The Way: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
