Americans are clustering more and more into cultural, social, economic, religious, and political enclaves according to Bill Bishop in his new book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. Basically, our affluence has led us to the place that most Americans want to live, work, and play with people just like them. The Homogenous Unit Principle that I spoke of a few posts ago, seems to be alive and well in an increasingly multicultural America. But, instead of becoming a melting pot, we look more like a salad bowl of Balkanized special interests. Of course, we have seen this for years with white-flight and the rise of the suburb, but it is now apparently happening across other areas of life and it has profound social, political, and religious implicatoins.
Does Christianity have any answers for this type of division taking place in our society? The Bible says that Jesus broke down cultural barriers. Religious ones, too. You can't really argue with that. He said again and again, "You have heard it said . . . But I say . . . " He introduced the Kingdom of God, which was upside-down compared to the kingdoms of this world. He went to Samaritans, Greeks, Romans, prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, and other "sinners." He even went to the "righteous." He was called a drunkard and a glutton because of who He ate and drank with. He healed on the Sabbath and confounded the leaders of His day. In the end, He was crucified for it.
Do our lives look like Jesus, or do we just mimic our culture and add Jesus onto it? I am thinking a lot about this lately because I am writing a book on racial and economic divisions and the church (I am heavy into my research right now), but also because I am convinced that our discipleship concerns far more than our personal piety. Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon us and that we would be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. More barriers broken. We see the gospel break out to the Samaritans in Acts 8. We see it break out to the Gentiles in Acts 10-11. Paul said that there was neither male nor female, circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythinan, slave or free - Christ is all and is in all (Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:26-29).
Michael Spencer wrote a GREAT post about how following Jesus means that we leave our comfortable cultural enclaves and we interact with people who are different from us. We really need to be intentional about this, since Jesus was intentional about it. The early church also spread out across many cultures and tribes and flourished in multi-cultural cities. Unfortunately, it seems that we in America (especially the middle class), are clustering together more and more with people just like us. This is also prevalent in the church. If Jesus and the early disciples were led by the Spirit to go to people different from them and demonstrate the inclusivity of the Kingdom of God, then how can we withdraw to be with people just like us and still claim to follow Jesus?
I have written a lot on these topics during the month of JUNE. You also REALLY need to check out these two links that Michael provides related to Bishop's book, The Big Sort. They require posts all their own to interact with the implications:
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