How can the answer to this question be anything but yes? Of course being united to Christ should trump everything else about us. In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, male nor female. In Christ our differences are (should be) smaller than our unity in the Body.
But there is something very wrong with my initial question.While I must hold on to Christ over all else, Christ does not obviate culture. I am unable to stop being white, male, a New Englander, etc. All of Christianity is mediated through culture. Yes, it should challenge culture. In fact, the very heart of Christianity is the upsetting of human power structures and turning culture on its head.
This question was posed to me by a pastor when I was beating the drum for church to be more multiracial from top to bottom. He wondered whether we should be focused on being Christian culture and less focused on celebrating our differences. “Shouldn’t we be working for a Christ centered culture rather than emphasizing multicultural forms of Christianity? Doesn’t our Christianness trump culture?”
What do you think?
While there can certainly be problems with focusing on differences, here’s the problem I have with becoming one culture:
1. We view Christianity through cultural lenses but are often (if we are in the dominant culture) blind to these lenses.
2. So, this means I want to maintain my cultural comfort zone and I want you (who are different) to also be comfortable with what I like
3. Denying culture often ends up missing facets of the Gospel that one particular culture understands but is missing in another. In my Presbyterian culture, the Westminster Confession of Faith speaks little to nothing about injustice and suffering. Southern and Northern Black theologies speak eloquently about these two subjects. The construction of Jazz (with very Gospel beginnings!) adds a richness to Reformed theology that was missing. Without a rich view of suffering, my Gospel looked a bit too much like the American dream. The head cannot say to the eye, I have no need of you…we depend on each others giftings and differences to help shape our understanding of the great God we worship and serve!
Musings on Faith and Psychology 