Rules of Engagment

So, are there rules for cultural engagement? If so, who has them and where can I find them - because right now it seems like everyone has an opinion on the matter. Personally, I have a gut feeling that we deceive ourselves with the things we watch and read and listen to. I am guilty as charged. But I also want to be able to reach the lost at the point that they are at, so I need to have some sense of that point. Where do I draw the line?

Do I have to see every movie, hear every song, read every book to intelligently engage my culture in relevant dialogue (to use the language of the day)? When I read how Paul approaches the lost in Acts, it's clear that he knows their philosophies well enough to use them (note: the Mars Hill debate of Acts 17) . However we never read anything about his immersion in their cultural activities. I don't think that's what he means by being all things to all people in order to win the lost. (I Corinthians 9) I may be wrong, but I don't think we would have found him in the front row of too many pagan plays.

Sometimes I think we use "knowing their world - to save them" as an excuse for an engagement with the world. If we are honest, we would acknowledge that we get involved so that we can "enjoy" the same things that they are enjoying. Why should we get left behind in these things? But if we use it as a reason for engagement with the lost - that's something different. Do we truly want to discuss these things intelligently in order to win them to Christ? As with everything, it is the motive that matters. We need to answer it honestly.

Does our heart bleed so deeply for the lost that we will be willing to enter into some things that are repulsive to us to win them - or do we love these things of the world and we want to find a nice theological reason for indulging our fleshly desires.

Let’s take movies, which I love. I don't go by the rating system of the world, because they don't have the same spiritual bent that I (hopefully) have. For example, Braveheart, rated R, has some of the most intense spiritual themes of loyalty and faith I've ever watched, whereas The Little Mermaid, rated G, rewards a young teen for rebellion against her father by giving her her heart's desires. I'm not trying to be a stick-in-the-mud, but the Hollywood rating system doesn't take into consideration mindsets - which are far more important to me than a severed head! I mean, who doesn't love a good dismemberment once in a while?

So I don't necessarily make my decisions on their rating system, though it is a good general guideline. But, again, where do I draw the line? As I've said before, I have to trust the "Ick Factor." The deeper I get into God, into His holy light, the more the sickness of the world is a stench in my nostrils. I should not want to engage in this sickness. It should cause my stomach to turn.

Let's not kid ourselves. As Proverbs 26:22 says, "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts." Listening to gossip is fun - but be warned - it seeps into your inmost parts, becoming who you are. The same with the sick things of the world's culture. Do not be deceived - unless you are Christ - you can't digest these things without some form of corruption entering into your system.

When I first began thinking of this line of thought, I didn't want to write it. I didn't want to be a kill-joy. Then I realized that if your joy is found in these sick things of the world, you are in the wrong place spiritually anyway. (I include myself here).

Deeper holiness does not mean a separation from the world - but it should mean that you can recognize filth when it is before you.