Being counter-cultural…what does that mean?

I said last week that in this post we’d consider Jesus’ words about salt and light. However, I wanted to take one more week to explain exactly what I mean by “counter-cultural” and why it’s an essential concept for you to understand if you’re a Christian.

What does counter-cultural mean?

If you live in the UK or the USA or any other country in which Christianity has been the foundation of the dominant culture for many centuries, you may not immediately understand what it means to live this way.

To be counter-cultural is to live in a way that enables you to stand out from the society around you on the basis of your faith. If you’re a Christian I dare say you are familiar with this idea. Many people use the phrase “in the world but not of the world” (which sounds like a Biblical quote but actually isn’t one, at least not directly).

Here’s what Jesus actually said (while talking to God about his disciples):
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
(John 17:14-18)

So “in the world but not of the world” is a reasonable summary of Jesus’ position here, even if it’s not exactly what he said. This means there are two mistakes which Christians must avoid (but which are incredibly easy to make):

First, it’s incredibly easy to just go along with the world around us and do what it does, say what it says and believe what it teaches. I’m going to suggest it’s even easier to fall into this trap in a historically Christian country like the UK (I’ll explain why in a moment).

Second, there is always the temptation to do the exact opposite: to try and maintain your personal or our communal holiness by withdrawing from the world and having as little as possible to do with anyone or anything outside the church. Again, you may be well aware of this, but ask yourself: how much of your social life is connected to church or the people you know there? If the answer is “all of it” or “nearly all of it”, maybe that’s something on which you can reflect on and examine your motivations.

Why might it be easier for you to fall into the first trap if you live somewhere like the UK?

The answer is that since the UK has been historically a Christian country, virtually all of our laws and cultural values and practices (at least until recently) find their roots in Christian teachings and principles.

The question which then might arise is, of course, how does a Christian live counter-culturally in a nation which has historically (and for a very long time in our case) based its culture on Christianity?

In the case of the UK, one might argue that it’s hardly a Christian nation at all any longer. The rise of secularism has done much (and quite deliberately) to forcibly push Christianity out of the public consciousness. National census figures from 2021 indicate that around 46% of the population of England and Wales now identify as Christian (and it’s likely many of them may not be regular church-goers). According to a YouGov survey, for Scotland the number of people identifying as Christians was 33% in 2022.

There is also the increasing number of people moving to the UK from elsewhere who belong to other religious faiths, for example Islam or Hinduism. This not only decreases the proportion of Christians in the overall population but also introduces new cultural values and teachings into the mix.

Nevertheless, for those of a certain age (perhaps those born before 1990) there may still be a subconscious feeling that Britain is a Christian nation and that there is little if any dichotomy or contradiction between being a normal British person and being a Christian.

If this describes you, you may not feel the need to be counter-cultural at all.

The early Christians who lived in the Roman Empire, surrounded by a mixture of Greek and Roman and local culture, would have noticed an immense difference between what Jesus taught and what was considered normal by society at large.

The treatment of women, of slaves and of children are three obvious examples. Christians who took their faith seriously had to very visibly stand apart from that prevaiing culture and many paid the price for it, some even with their lives.

What about us?

Is the same true for you? If you are a Christian living in a place like Britain, do you feel that same need to stand apart from what is considered to be “normal” British culture? What price would you be prepared to pay for doing so?

To what extent can you as a Christian simply go along with what everybody else seems to be doing? And at what point should you draw a line and refuse, on principle, to follow the crowd?

Are there aspects of British culture (or American culture or the culture of wherever you happen to live) which a Christian should not be part of? If so, which ones? And how do we decide?

To what extent should you trust what the government says? Or what the media say? Or what those considered to be experts say?

To what extent should Christians be involved with, for example, cultural or sporting events that everyone else considers normal or honourable?

What should Christians think about the celebrities and media personalities and “national treasures” who are widely followed or even quasi-worshipped by others?

What should the Christian response be to current social issues such as climate change or conflict abroad (e.g. Ukraine, Gaza) or transgender rights or anything else that might consistently appear in the news or on social media?

Obviously we’d want to follow the example of Jesus and hold a position that would agree with him. But how do we know what that would be?

These are the sorts of questions I would ask you to keep in mind as we go through the rest of Jesus’ manifesto. As we do that, we won’t find a comprehensive set of rules that cover each and every situation you might encounter in life. What we will find are principles which, if considered in the mind of a Christian who has truly been converted, can be applied to any and all circumstances you experience.

Being counter-cultural is never easy by definition and it’s likely that you and I both have blind spots in our lives. What do I mean by that? I mean that there are almost certainly things you do or say or think on a regular basis which are considered entirely normal or virtuous by the culture you live in, but if examined closely may not be compatible with your loyalty to Jesus.

So, as promised last time, we’ll begin by looking at Jesus’ words on salt and light….