After coming to Christ in 1970, I looked for a fellowship of believers. I fell in with a small group of serious Christians who were searching for the purest form of New Testament practice and doctrine. It was not long before I realized that for us everyone outside our group was either liberal, lukewarm or carnal. Perhaps the description I heard most often was, “They are just cultural Christians” and with this label we easily wrote off Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. Of course, Catholics and Mormons were not even cultural Christians. They were cults. 

Over time I began to wonder if our search was similar to the chemist’s who after years of research found the universal solvent capable of eating through any known material. Ironically, there was nothing in creation in which to store it. It was so pure it was useless. In the same way I began to reconsider the phrase “cultural Christian” and realized there was no such thing as a non-cultural Christian. Every individual, sect, and denomination has been shaped and contained by some form of culture. There is no such thing as pure Christianity and if there were it would be as impossible to use as a universal solvent. Every Christian expression exists inside and in relationship with a particular culture.

Of course, there are various levels and degrees of how culture affects us. It can be mild or toxic. It may be friendly or hostile. It may be open to the influence of the Gospel or one that overpowers the Gospel by distorting it.

I think the levels look something like this:

Amalgamation: Many different religious traditions arrived on the shores of early America – Puritans, Anglicans, Reformed, Methodists, Baptists, and Catholic with each working hard to capture the hearts and minds of the new frontier. Early on, Alexis de Tocqueville realized that a distinct American religion was forming and he observed that the great practical aim of religion in America was to “harmonize earth with heaven.” Despite the various differences in doctrine, “they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God.” In time, that became what we now call “American Civil Religion” or the amalgamation of all these traditions into something most hold to be true – more or less.

Appropriation: When Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles lifted music directly from the American black tradition of blues they introduced that tradition to a new audience. They appropriated and changed it enough to fit their own style and fans. They popularized an unfamiliar style. Religions do the same. They pick up pieces of other cultures and add them to their own. Every religious expression in America has lifted something once obscure, adapted it and made it their own. 

Confluence: When two rivers of diverse sources, colors and contents meet it is easy to see their differences. There is a distinct line down the middle of the new river. One may be blue and the other a dark brown but they do not immediately mingle. Instead, they travel together for miles as separate streams until they finally combine into one. It takes time for them to merge into one but they do eventually. This is a good description of Christian Nationalism. It is two streams in American life that have traveled together for decades – maybe from the beginning – but have now combined into a single body of belief.

Syncretism: This is the complete blending of two or more religious or secular  belief systems into something new. It happens most often where multiple religious options exist or when a culture is conquered and the conquerors bring their own religion with them. The new religion has roots in both and is a creative way for the old religion to survive and not fade away. They absorb and are bonded to each other and, in time, the dominant religion is changed so gradually the shift to widespread syncretism is silent and invisible. In Mexico the veneration of Santa Muerte (Our Lady of Holy Death) is a folk religion using the roots of Catholicism and adoration of the saints to create shrines, prayers and rites performed by believers who now number between 10-20 million. 

It took me time to realize that all of us are cultural Christians to one degree or another. It is inescapable and while some influences are more harmful than others, no individual believer, church or denomination exists in a pure state. We have all been shaped and influenced by the people, history, values and context of our lives. We should not look down on or quickly disparage cultural Christians. 

After all, there is no other kind.