Like the film Life, Die, Repeat in which the protagonist fights the same battle every day, gets killed and respawns back at the beginning, culture wars repeat themselves. They can be stressful but also fun and they can generate a sense of camaraderie. Unfortunately in an attempt to win a battle and ‘own the enemy’ we can sometimes find ourselves celebrating victory with some pretty ugly comrades in arms.
Ultimately, if there is a culture war to win, it will be won by fighting as Christians. That requires thinking a lot more about what the Bible tells us about God, ourselves, our world and our purpose. It means learning to tell a better story about truth and beauty, history and place, when to conserve and when to be radical. It means better representing our master who astonishes by being soft when we would be hard and hard when we would be soft. We must be more familiar with the tools we have been given to engage our enemies fairly. Finally, we need to learn from Proverbs 26:4-5 when to argue!
As a survey of the battleground and the tools of engagement Ben Chang’s book is well worth reading.