Prepare yourself for cultural exile

After 350 years of Christian cultural dominance in America, church history professor Carl Trueman tells us what we should all know but have been reluctant to admit: The church is entering a period of cultural exile:

“The strident rhetoric of scientism has made belief in the supernatural look ridiculous. The Pill, no-fault divorce, and now gay marriage have made traditional sexual ethics look outmoded at best and hateful at worst. The Western public square is no longer a place where Christians feel they belong with any degree of comfort. … It’s an exile to cultural irrelevance.”

The dominant cultural forces are targeting Christianity as a public enemy, a cultural force hostile to human rights—especially those of women and homosexuals—and thus as fundamentally un-American. New York Times writer Josh Barro recently tweeted to Ryan Anderson, a researcher on marriage policy at The Heritage Foundation, that people who hold orthodox Christian views on marriage do not deserve to be treated civilly, as though he were addressing a Nazi or white supremacist. The newspaper of record considers this to be acceptable behavior for one of its writers. That’s where we are.

Trueman suggests we deal with this by a more faithful focus on identity, liturgy, and citizenry. He points us to the faithful preaching of the gospel that centers us in Christ, liturgies of worship that shape our expectations of life, and responsible, godly engagement with that culture in the public square. To this wisdom, I add my own threefold exhortation:

Trueman’s article, “A Church for Exiles,” would serve well as the basis for a month of Sunday school discussions. Pastors, ready your people for the exile!