Dealing With The System

On this occasion, it’s King Arthur’s fault.

Arthur Sido over at The Voice Of One Crying In Suburbia, recently posted something on a some good stuff he’d come across.  One of the posts he referred to was by Dan Edelen over at Cerulean Sanctum.  As the linking goes, that post was part of a series of posts looking at Radicalism and Reality.  One of those posts was called Kids, Systems and Success.  I highly recommend you give that a read.

In it Dan gives great insight into how Christians engage – or don’t – with the system.  This system is the one in which we live whether we’re conscious of it or not.  This is the system that shapes and operates life around us economically, socially, culturally, educationally, indeed through most spheres of existence we know.

Dan does an excellent job highlighting how this system can ‘kiss, bite and be indifferent’. He helps us see scripture itself points towards a balanced approach to engaging with the system recognising that its to be respected where necessary, but also noting how it is not designed for our good and will relentlessly carry on.  Dan’s conclusion is that we thus need both the skill and the character to engage with the system appropriately – not outright be antagonistic towards it or adopt a passive stance towards it.

The larger context in which this article takes place concerns the challenges Christians have reading the Jesus’ requirements of discipleship and examples of early Christian community and comparing them with modern challenges. I’m glad Dan brings these up, because they continue to be deep concerns of mine.

I was conversing with a friend recently about the sort of demands society places on us in this culture – the working hours, the nature of social interaction, the role of the media, peer pressure and the tendency to conform to culture. He was virtually shrugging his shoulders and suggesting that it was the way of the world and it was for Christians to just deal with it.

Yet if it affects how Christians themselves relate, then it’s surely a problem.  If our lack of awareness of it perpetuates a Christian lifestyle of superficial weekly contacts that at best gets us ‘doing stuff’ together, but hardly engenders deep, intimate discipleship relationships, surely that’s a problem.

Like Dan in his initial article on Radicalism and Reality, I don’t have answers, but the question vexes me enough to seek them.  It bothers me enough to see Jesus inspiring moves towards discovering answers.

For the sake of an example to the children and others who look to Church as an alternative, we together must explore how following Jesus gives us creative ways of engaging with the system without capitulating to it by avoidance or full adherence.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden