I wrote a post last week about the excellent Cal Thomas article encouraging Christians to engage the culture by doing whatever it is they do with excellence and then offering their work in the marketplace of ideas--rather than huddling in their own little sphere and having little to no impact on those who most need God's message.
You all offered some good thoughts in the comments to that post. Amy at Amy's Humble Musings took exception to both the article and my question How do we go about "shedding light in dark places"?
I'm not really sure that we disagree, although she seems to think so. I'm curious as to what you think. Amy says,
We should not be asking how we can best shed light; instead, we should be inquiring more fundamentally, why are our lights are so dim? Christians, on the whole, have digested the same worldview our public institutions have fed us. And we are licking our lips. We swallow the lie that academia and such are morally neutral and, therefore, can be separated from faith. . . . . Christians do not need to get off their comfy couches and “get out there and make a difference.” It would be nice if it were that easy. No, in order to begin making a difference, Christians must begin the process by being different. And that requires a lot more than just getting off the couch.
Of course, I am advocating that Christians be different from those in the world. To me that is a given before a Christian can begin to influence his culture. And, of course, faith cannot be separated from academia or art or music or life.
My response on Amy's blog was that neither I nor Cal Thomas is urging that we separate God from "life, academia, media, art, science"--actually just the opposite. We are both saying that we should engage the culture in a way that shows them we are different. What I'm arguing for is that we do as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein and Francis Schaeffer did and show those who need it most that our biblical worldview does not prevent us from being excellent in whatever field we pursue, be it art or music or literature or life.
Amy comments that "even if we were excellent as were Lewis et al, the problem of current saltlessness leaves the excellence we attain without much savor..."
What do you think? Can we have the excellence Thomas and I are advocating without the "saltiness" Amy describes? Certainly it's possible, but my hope is that Christians will strive for both. It's not an either/or proposition, but rather a blending of the two.
