Haunted by Christ

How the Cultural Christ Dominates the Religious Landscape

The southern writer Flannery O'Connor said, "By and large, people in the South still conceive of humanity in theological terms. While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted."

It is a haunting that this pastor feels everyday as I talk with people about the Lord Jesus Christ. It was slow to dawn on me, but now in the full light of day, after half a lifetime of ministry in Virginia, South Carolina, and Alabama, I have realized that though the Lord has the same name in our churches, He is not necessarily the same person.

It is the "cultural Christ" that has replaced the real Christ in our communities. People may talk of "going to church," "baptisms," "fillings," "preaching," "revivals," and "asking Jesus into their heart"; but it is more-often-than-not a sham, a fake, a plastic substitute for the real thing. The cultural Christ is a southern idol, adorned and feasted and worshipped but only superficially different from the ancient deities of Asherah, Baal, and Tammuz.

How do we know that the cultural Christ is not the true Christ? Chiefly, because there is no death and resurrection in the cultural gospel.

Yes, the words are there but they are empty of practical meaning. The true gospel kills the sinner, buries him, and raises him a new man with new desires and affections.

A. W. Tozer observed over fifty years ago the emergence of a "new cross" in evangelicalism, "From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique-a new type of meeting and a new kind of preaching. The new evangelicalism employs the same language as the old, but its content is not the same and its emphasis is not as before." Instead of passing from death unto life, the cultural Christ
only modifies the sinner's most grievous faults and offers him heaven and the world too.

The cultural religion makes the sinner feel good without turning from his sins. It sanctifies our ego and strokes our self-esteem. What does it matter that we are idolaters, blasphemers, adulterers, fornicators, liars, gossips, drunkards, lustful, violent, jealous, haughty, or covetous? After all, didn't we walk the aisle? Pray a sinner's prayer? Didn't we say the prescribed words? And was not our name on the church roll?

Our services often hide the fact that church members don't hate their sin, grieve over their guilt, nor turn from the popular cultural idols to serve the living and true God. We comfort ourselves with the myth that Christians are not necessarily radically changed people. We think loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is optional. We don't have die to sin and be raised to new life. Our comfort is in the dusty decision card, baptismal record, and confirmation certificate.

Has it ever occurred to us that when a person does not passionately love and follow Jesus Christ that they are not truly Christian? Followers of the cultural Christ bask in the assurance of religious externals, but it will be a rude awakening when we stand before the majestic holiness of the true Christ and discover the hypocrisy of our religious traditions. The cultural Christ is only an idolatrous ghost that haunts our culture, deceiving many and saving none.

Let each of us listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, "for the Lord says, 'These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.'"

- Bob St.John

Published in The Anniston Star, March 9, 2008 under the title, "Explaining the Cultural Christ."