Cultural Christianity: Form of Godliness

In Mark chapter 7, Jesus took on the religious people of the day, who had various traditions, but did not adhere to the Word of God.  He said:

6 ..."Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

Later in the chapter, we can read this:
8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."
9 He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

He speaks of...
13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do."

We have heard some high-profile people use the phrase, "cultural Christian," to describe themselves as of late.  Even though Christians should be engaged in changing the culture, to use the word, "cultural," as an adjective to define the word, "Christian," is a bit of a stretch. We should not allow the culture to define us, but should always be seeking to impact the culture with the love and presence of Christ. 

Take, for instance, one of the most popular men on the planet these days, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and now the owner of what was formerly known as Twitter, now called, X. The Christian Post ran an article on recent statements by the entrepreneur, reporting:

"While I'm not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise, and that there's tremendous wisdom in turning the other cheek," Musk told Jordan Peterson during an interview for The Daily Wire.

The article goes on to say:

"I'm actually a big believer in the principles of Christianity," Musk went on. "I think they're very good."

After Musk hesitated when Peterson pressed him to explain in what sense he was not religious, Peterson noted how atheist Richard Dawkins recently labeled himself a "cultural Christian" despite not believing in the supernatural tenets of Christianity.

"I would say I'm probably a cultural Christian," said Musk, who noted he has had many conversations with Dawkins. "I was brought up as an Anglican, and I was baptized."

The interview also included Musk's disdain regarding his son's "transition" into becoming a female. The Post article related:

Musk also recounted during the interview with Peterson how his 20-year-old son Xavier, who now identifies as a female named Vivian Jenna Wilson, is effectively "dead" after he was "tricked" into authorizing his chemical transition.

"It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had any understanding of what was going on," said Musk, who has 12 children.

Musk added, "I agree with you that people that have been promoting this should go to prison...I was tricked into doing this. It wasn't explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs." He also said, "And so I lost my son, essentially," adding, "So, you know, they call it 'deadnaming' for a reason, alright? So the reason it's called 'deadnaming' is because your son is dead. So my son, Xavier, is dead, killed by the woke mind virus."  He said that following this series of events, he "vowed to destroy the woke mind virus..."

Richard Dawkins, who is a noted atheist, according to the Washington Examiner...

...admitted he is concerned about the decline of Christianity in the Western world and even described himself as a “cultural Christian.”

“I do think that we are culturally a Christian country,” Dawkins told Leading Britain’s Conversation, a British talk-radio station. “I call myself a cultural Christian. I’m not a believer. … And so you know, I love hymns and Christmas carols, and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos. … If we substituted [Christianity] with any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful.”

The writer, Kaylee McGhee White, states this:

What Dawkins has realized, perhaps too late, is that the “Christian ethos,” as he described it, is the very foundation of the laws and institutions upon which Western society depends. Equal justice under the law, the importance of the family unit, the need for community, and the importance of self-control and personal responsibility in a self-governing society all find their basis in biblical teachings. The very concept of human rights is rooted in the belief that all human beings have divine value that no person can take from them.

Strip society of these values by encouraging people to reject their source, and it turns out that what we’re left with is a soulless, depressed, and increasingly unjust culture. Get rid of God, and everyone starts to think of themselves as their own gods.

Dawkins apparently recognizes the problem with this, which is why he now argues that Christianity in particular is necessary, if only to regulate the public’s behavior — while, of course, continuing to argue that religion itself is bad. One has to wonder whether such an inconsistency requires greater mental gymnastics than simply believing in God.

And, even Jordan Peterson, who conducted the interview with Elon Musk, is unclear about his own Christian faith.  Jeff Gardner, writing for The Stream, says:

Does it matter if Peterson is Christian? To quote Peterson, “Well, that depends” on what direction he ultimately takes his work on Judeo-Christian “stories” and what he says we should draw from them. If, like Joseph Campbell, who built a career on telling us what Christian stories did and did not mean but then quipped that the Judeo-Christian belief in bodily resurrection was “a clown act, really,” Peterson someday asserts that Jesus was nothing more than a historical figure upon whom we collectively placed our need to believe in a hero, then, well, that’s a problem. If, however, Peterson comes to a place where, like C.S. Lewis, he finds that “I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ,” that would signal a very different chapter in Peterson’s public story.

Peterson, in the lecture Gardner attended, referred to "the good," and "the bad." Gardner writes: 

This distinction between how we judge “the good” and “the bad” has its roots in great Christian thinkers like St. Augustine of Hippo and is at the heart of the Christian enjoinment to “hate the sin but love the sinner.” The sinner wants fulfillment of a natural desire, but in his actions, he is in the most literal sense, doing it wrong and disorganizing himself and others in the process. How to organize ourselves and the world towards “the good,” Peterson pointed out, is at the heart of Judeo-Christian values and something that we should all deeply internalize.

The goodness of Christianity vs. the evil of this world. These men seem to be dealing in concepts that they do not possess the Biblical knowledge to really define.  With Elon Musk's and Richard Dawkins' endorsement of a "cultural Christianity" that resembles Biblical truth but doesn't embrace it fully, they are at a place they share with others who profess Christ, who possess, as the Bible calls it in 2nd Timothy 3, a "form of godliness," but without power.  One should not judge a person's salvation, or what is in his or her heart, certainly.  But, one can hear a person's own confession, which can indicate that he or she has been transformed through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Peterson may have a "Christianity-adjacent" set of beliefs, but one cannot be quite sure if he is one of us, even though he philosophizes about topics that are related to faith. 

A "cultural Christian," I would contend, is not a Christian at all, because that person's allegiance may be to some of the teachings of Jesus that they have hand-picked, but lacks the fruit of turning aside from the things of the world and following Jesus wholeheartedly, accepting Him as their Savior.  Christians have to guard against having the culture dictate or influence their deeply-held beliefs and convictions.  But, conversely, we can make sure that we are having a redemptive impact on the culture, taking every opportunity to show the world who Jesus is and what He has done for us.