3 Reasons Christianity Is The Best Solution To Our Cultural Moment

Previously I gave four reasons why our secular worldview has failed us. Not only has it contributed to our lack of grace towards one another in how we are facing COVID-19 as well as racial injustices, but it has also left us ill-equipped to effect positive change.

While it is true that many who embrace a secular worldview are fighting for equality for all, it isn't because secular humanism gives a logical foundation for it. It's because we know injustice exists and something propels us to want to correct it. In what follows, I'll give three reasons why Christianity is actually the best solution to confronting our current cultural moment.

1. It teaches us that all human beings matter

What is it that tells us that all human beings are worthy of dignity, love, and respect? Just because we want something to be true doesn't actually make it true. In order for all people to matter, we must have a system that gives a credible reason for believing that to be so.

A naturalistic worldview that teaches us that the strong eat the weak is not that system. So why is it that we are drawn to this idea that every person is valuable? Christianity tells us why. Scripture teaches us that all human beings are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). As such, all human beings are worthy to be treated with dignity and respect not based on what they do but who they are.

Christianity gives us the emotional and logical framework to fight for the dignity of the disabled, the poor, the marginalized, and the broken. Not only does Christianity tells us that every person matters, but Jesus also came to offer grace, forgiveness, and love to everyone who would receive it.

This means everyone matters and no one is unworthy of God's love. Without a foundation which shows us that every single person matters to God, how can we sustain any long-term work that fights to that end? Christianity gives us the basic foundation that mistreatment of people matters because all people matter.

2. It teaches us to prioritize those who are being mistreated

Because all human beings matter, Christianity teaches that we must then prioritize our care for those who society is quickest to dismiss.

This is why such an emphasis is placed in the New Testament (all of which was written in the first century) on caring for widows and orphans. Widows (particularly older women whose husband had died and any sort of income gone with him) had no real opportunity to care for themselves. This same was true for orphans (and often still is true today).

There is a particular bent not only in the teachings of Jesus but in the teachings of the entire New Testament to prioritize care for those who need it the most.

This means that in our current cultural moment in America, we ought to enthusiastically say black lives matter. And then we should take whatever steps we can to help create an environment where black lives are given equal love and respect that they deserve. Not because it's a good idea, but because it's true.

In our current cultural moment, many white Americans (myself included) are seeing in a new light just how much systemic racism has altered life for minority cultures in our county. So while we could simply say "all lives matter" because it is technically true, this wouldn't be the correct Biblical response.

Christianity teaches that we seek the good of others over our own personal wants and desires. And not only does it teach us this, but Jesus himself demonstrated it for us by laying down his life for us. Black lives matter is not about elevating one group of people over another, it is about elevating a marginalized group of people to their rightful place as equals.

3. It tells us why we should fight against racial injustice

Because all human beings matter and we must prioritize those who are being mistreated, Christianity gives the best reason for fighting against racial injustice.

We don't simply fight against racial injustice because we don't like it (though that is certainly one of many good reasons). We don't fight against racial injustice simply because we know someone who has been negatively affected by it. We fight against racial injustice because it is inherently right.

In the New Testament book of Colossians, Paul writes, "In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all." This is only one of the multiple references in Scripture that tell us no matter who you are, what you look like, what you have done, or what has been done to you; there is no distinction between who can or cannot receive the love of God.

Paul is not saying our cultural or ethnic differences don't matter or exist, he is saying that they have no bearing on whether or not God cares for you.

Because this is true, Christianity gives the best reason to fight against racial injustice. It's not about being on the right side of history or scoring points in the social arena for speaking out. It's about doing what is right, and it is right to fight against racial injustice.

Christianity gives hope and reason

Christianity gives us what our secular worldview cannot, a reason found in both emotion and logic as to why we should fight racism. God created all of us equal. Jesus was explicitly anti-racists in both word and deed, and God's Kingdom will be the most diverse place you could ever be.

If you would like some additional resources to help you on your journey to better knowing and understanding how racism has so deeply impacted our current culture, New City Church (where I lead) created a resource pageto help get you started. Click here to access it.