Frontline challenges I

Kenny Forsyth, from Kilmarnock Corps, leads a Good Friday march of witness organised by the Fellowship of Kilmarnock Churches

WHAT RELEVANCE DOES CHRISTIANITY HAVE IN MODERN WESTERN CULTURE? FRONTLINE CHALLENGES

In our frontline service – among friends, colleagues or neighbours – we’re often asked about faith and ethics; David Newstead offers some responses

JOHN Lennon declared in 1966 that the Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’. They, along with others in the Swinging Sixties, established what became known as ‘pop culture’. Over the years this has morphed into ‘celebrity culture’, and now seems to be one of the pillars of our secular and materialist society.

Culture has been defined as a way of life that is passed down from the previous generation and used to be reflected in music, writing, art and

Isle of Wight celebrates the risen Lord with a cross of yellow flowers and puppets to tell the Easter story

religion. Sadly, however, the religious element has diminished, and with it the personal and moral values of lovingkindness, reverence, forgiveness and compassion.

Positive personal values are common to all the great religions but if they fail to heal a sick and fragmented world, and do not contribute to a better life for others, they have no value at all. Too many of these moral values have been replaced in our society and culture by hatred, irreverence, indifference and apathy. It would appear that some mischievous person has changed all the price labels. Things that were once of great value have now become devalued and replaced by what was once considered worthless. In her book, The World Turned Upside Down, Melanie Phillips writes: ‘Society is in the grip of a mass derangement. Truth is trashed and lies lauded, the honourable despised and the depraved empowered. Morality has been flipped on its head.’ We have made God in our image. Modern culture appears to focus around ‘me and my needs’ or worse still ‘my country first’; whereas it was Jesus who said that the test of worthiness for the Kingdom of God is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and sheltering the homeless (see Matthew 25:34–40).

As Christians we believe in the sacredness of the human personality; therefore all human beings should behave in a responsible manner and treat each other with respect. But we also acknowledge that we are accountable to a higher authority, so our beliefs must underpin our values. Montagu Jeffreys, in Personal Values In The Modern World, writes: ‘Christianity is a faith that gives meaning and purpose to life in this world and beyond it. Quite simply, the Kingdom of God is love in action. The essence of the Christian revelation is that it is not just a statement but an act.’ This could be summed up in the words of John Wesley: ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’

The challenge for Christians in modern western society is to be authentic and credible witnesses of the Kingdom of God by showing and sharing the word of Jesus to a broken and hurting world.

TO PONDER In a world of shifting values, There are standards that remain, I believe that holy living By God’s grace we may attain. (SASB 34)

DAVID NEWSTEAD IS A SOLDIER AT BIRMINGHAM CITADEL