Why Are Christians Always On Defense?
How pluralism and pessimism get in the way of our objective.
This piece was originally published on October 21, 2021, under the title “Time to Change Our Culture War Strategy.” Some additions and revisions have been made.
If you know me or see my posts on social media, you probably gathered that I’m a huge college football fan and that I probably get a little too excited about it sometimes. In football, I’m a firm believer in defense. Season after season proves to me that the best teams have the best defenses. Look no further than Alabama’s dynasty and their defensive domination year after year. In college football, the saying rings true: “defense wins championships.”
But as a Christian in a secular culture, defense doesn’t win. The Christian life at times requires defense against evil, yes, but ours is a faith of offense. We are always moving forward, always becoming more like Christ, always spreading the gospel (1 Cor. 15:58). When we are not moving forward, something is wrong.
Just like a child who does not grow, the Christian who stops in his sanctification or stops sharing his faith is sick. This doesn’t mean defense is never allowed. There are times for defense against those who attack our Savior, but none of us should desire to be Christians that rely on defensive posture toward the world.
So, why have we fallen back on defense in the culture war?
First, we need to admit we are in a culture war. If you don’t like that term, maybe you can think of it as a competition of worldviews. Either way, we should recognize that today there are completely opposite philosophies and religions that battle for control of the culture. Some of these philosophies and religions believe girls can turn into boys and boys into girls. Some of them believe your skin color determines whether you’re an oppressor or a victim. Some of them believe it’s right and just to have sexual relations with someone of the same sex. Some of them believe it’s good to murder an unborn child. All of these philosophies and religions are at complete odds with biblical Christianity.
Once we see that we’re in a war for the heart of society, it becomes clear that we as Christians constantly fall to defense.
There are two ways we fall into a defensive posture when we think about our role in the culture. Many Christians have either fallen into a false hope in pluralism (the idea that different worldviews can share a culture) or into a run-for-the-hills pessimism.
Pluralism sounds appealing and can even work in a diverse society to an extent, but it only goes so far. It’s naïve of us to believe that our society can get along despite our differences when our differences have become so vast that they lead to different conclusions on how we determine what is true, just, and beautiful.
We are actively watching what happens when two different interpretations of reality attempt to live in the same society, and we are discovering that it’s impossible to move on with our way of life while quietly letting others live their way of life. For that to happen, there must be some agreement on the very foundational truths of how life in this world operates. When there’s no agreement on absolute foundational truth, pluralism inevitably falls apart.
By relying on pluralism, we have become defensive in our proclamation of the gospel. Since pluralism allows for all worldviews, we’ve believed the lie that it’s not important for us to advance Christianity as the best worldview as long as we’re being nice to everyone. We’re so afraid of coming off as militant or authoritarian that we forget the fact that the gospel by nature is confrontational. Pluralism is a great excuse for us to become cowards in our evangelism. It’s a great excuse for us to rely on defense.
Run-for-the-hills pessimism neglects our duty as Christians to reach the world with the gospel of Christ. Christian pessimism looks at the world through as Winnie the Pooh’s friend Eeyore did. What’s the point of advancing the cause of Christ if evil men and demonic forces are just going to take over anyway?
Christian pessimism gives us an excuse to only engage the culture when it encroaches on our personal beliefs. This is very similar to what we see with conservative political movements such as the moral majority, the Tea Party, and the rise of Donald Trump. Conservatives come out of the woodworks when they need to play defense against radical progressivism, but they refuse to move the culture forward with their own worldview. Christian pessimists, who make up a large percentage of each of the aforementioned movements, only come out to play defense when their faith is threatened. They never engage the culture on offense.
Daniel Darling put it well in his 2015 article when he wrote,
“To abandon the public square reflects a poor view of God’s sovereignty over the earthly kingdoms. It’s a false division between the secular and sacred. And it’s a cruel surrender to the injustice of the enemies of God. We may not win every battle, and ultimately we fight not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of darkness, and this battle has already been won by our victorious King.”
Both pluralism and pessimism lead us to defensive stances when we engage the culture. We as Christians no longer see the need to go on offense and to fight for our culture with the truths of Scripture. We’re too content to punt the ball and send in the defense.
But wars are not won on defense. Wars can be extended through defensive stands—battles can be changed through strongholds, but eventually, you must attack to win.
This is where we have failed as Christians in our culture. We have given up ground by either convincing ourselves that it’s not our job to win the culture war (pluralism) or believing we can remove ourselves from culture if it ever gets that bad (pessimism).
We have stayed silent as our society has flown closer and closer toward the mountain, reassuring ourselves that we don’t need to fight for control of the plane; we’ll just parachute off when it gets too close to catastrophe.
Our answer to the collapse of our culture is either to normalize society’s wickedness (pluralism) or to create our own more biblically-friendly sub-culture (pessimism). Both are tragic mistakes.
For the sake of our faith and for the survival of our culture, we must fight against both pluralism and pessimism by realizing two things:
It’s important Christians win the culture war for the sake of truth, justice, and peace.
We win the culture war not by creating a sub-culture, but by shaping the current culture.
A common argument for Christians to accept pluralism points to Paul exhorting the church to “live peaceably with all men” (Rom. 12:18). That’s a fair point. Something about engaging in a culture war doesn’t sound peaceful. But to live peaceably with all men, we must ensure that society lives in the first place.
To live peaceably with those around us requires us to help our neighborhood, community, state, and nation live justly. When the definition of reality is controlled by those whose only guiding principle is their own pleasure, the understanding of justice gets perverted, and our Christian faith requires us to stand for truth.
If we care anything for justice, we will fight against those who pervert it. Christianity tells us to go to war for the culture, to advocate for righteousness and justice, to become active in the direction of our society, not to go along with culture’s sinfulness nor to shrink into a more comfortable sub-culture.
Pluralism and pessimism can no longer be our strategy in the culture war. The defense needs to come off the field, and our offense needs to cultivate a culture that reflects truth, goodness, and righteousness.