Broadly speaking there are two kinds of "Christianity" in *America
1. Cultural Christianity
2. Grace driven Christians
A. Cultural Christianity recognizes certain fundamentals of the Christian faith. The most basic and common elements are...
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· Man has the capacity for good but is naturally inclined toward bad i.e. corrupt by nature
· There are moral absolutes i.e. there is right and wrong and it doesn’t change.
· Man should be and will be held accountable for his choices and actions if not in this life, the next
These are also very important and distinct from a none Christian world view that believes
· Man is basically good and corrupted by his environment (vs from within).
· Morality is relative and subjective. What is right for you is not necessarily right for me or others.
· This life is all there is so make the most of it.
The fundamental differences of cultural Christianity are very significant when compared to a non Christian world view. How a cultural Christian approaches life is very different compared to a non believer.
B. Grace driven Christianity is rooted in the good news that God did all that was needed to restore us to himself simply because we were not able to. It agrees with and holds to the same fundamentals as the Cultural Christian but goes beyond these i.e. these cultural aspects will be a key part of a grace driven Christian's world view but is not the essence of what drives or defines them.
This distinction is important for two reasons:
1. Non Christians do not understand the difference and therefore lump these two into the same group. Why does this matter? Many attitudes and approaches to various cultural issues can be very different between cultural and grace driven Christians. As a result grace driven Christians are attributed certain outlooks they don’t necessarily agree with.
2. Those who adhere only to cultural Christianity usually do not understand or agree with the message of grace and may in fact be Christian only culturally and not in fact Christian in the fullest sense i.e. may not be true believers.
So the differences are not immediately apparent on the surface to a none believer (or even necessarily for those who claim to be Christians). It’s not until you look “under the hood” that you see the difference of what drives these outwardly similar yet very different flavors of Christianity.
So is cultural Christianity truly Christian? Yes, in so far as it adheres to these fundamental principles but no in so far as ones standing before God as his child is based on God’s work, not ours. The bible is clear that one’s standing before God is based on the good news of grace and accepting it’s offer, not in only adhering to a certain world view or moral standards.
For a grace driven Christian these views are the fruit of their relationship to God, not the cause of it. To say it another way, a cultural Christian my not be a Christian as defined in scripture. It is only by grace we are saved.
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*and elsewhere though this appears to be more common in the western church and particularly in America
** there can be some blending of world views between cultural Christians and non believers but generally if someone adheres to one of the distinguishing fundamentals of their particular world view, they tend to adhere to all of them i.e. they all tend to hang together or not at all
