Is a Quiet Life Consistent with the Culture Wars?
On the call to live quietly and the cultural call to constantly say something
Defining the “culture wars” can be a tricky thing. To some people, any time you advocate for the unborn or biblical justice in general, you are participating in the “culture wars.” But I think that is a useless definition of “culture wars,” similar to defining “Christian Nationalism” as anyone who votes against Pro-Choice policies. But there is such a thing as a culture war, an effort to dominate the culture, to conquer it, to destroy, to win. Of course, we ought to desire our culture to submit itself to Christ, and we ought to be salt and light in our culture so that it repents and submits to Christ. But the logic of the culture war often results to nihilism, a hopelessness that the Other can be persuaded and thus must instead be destroyed. The logic of nihilism is Total War. Every shot must be fired. Every criticism must be made. Every event must be commented upon (whether the facts are in or not). Every mistake or failing on our team can be overlooked. This is a war for the survival of civilization.
The challenge here is that legitimate issues are at stake underneath the logic of the culture war. Abortion matters. Unjust laws matter. The perversity of the sexual revolution matters. The decay of the family matters. But when these issues become subsumed under an agenda of Total War, they become symbols for something greater, the survival of a civilization (and in some corners of the Internet, a White civilization). If the culture wars involve (in part) a constant need to comment on political (what James Davison Hunter calls confusing the “public” for the “political”) and social issues and degregrate your neighbor, I wonder if we can honestly say that participation in the culture war is consistent with what Paul calls us to in 1 Thessalonians 4:11: a quiet life.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, Paul commends the Thessalonian church and calls them to a quiet life:
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
Paul’s commands here should be challenging to those of us who are used to being “always-online.” How many of us can honestly say we live quiet lives and mind our own affairs, let alone work with our hands? But I worry especially about the excesses of online behavior, like we find in the culture wars.
For example, how does quote-tweeting a fellow Christian and “dunking on them” for not being sufficiently opposed to immigration follow the command to “mind your own affairs”?
Or how does sharing every example of alleged progressive negative press follow the command to “live quietly”?
And the same could be said for the opposite political perspectives. This isn’t only a conservative problem. There are plenty of progressive Christians who are deeply, deeply in love with waging battle in the culture war, who aren’t at all concerned with persuading conservatives but with silencing them.
The reason Paul calls the church to quiet lives of minding our own affairs is that we can “walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” While we are not to care more about the gaze of people than the opinion of God, Paul is consistent in insisting that we should be concerned about how outsiders see us, insofar as it’s under our control. And here is an example. It’s under our control how we mind our affairs and speak. We don’t have to comment about every issue that comes up in the world. We don’t have to engage in the culture wars. We can advocate for justice without participating in the tit-for-tat, nihilistic, hopeless, Total War logic of the day.
For example, when someone says something you disagree with, you can challenge them with a pointed question, message them privately, or maybe just ignore it because you don’t have to respond to every person who you disagree with in the world!
Or when you see a story of the Other Side acting wrongly, you don’t have to share it. You can take it in discerningly and wait for more information and let it go.
What this does is show to outsiders that our ultimate good is the glory of God, not winning the culture for the sake of winning the culture. And sometimes in pursuit of the culture wars, people can get so lost in the logic of warfare and bitterness and conflict that they have lost all sense of the Good which they are supposed to be seeking after.
To reemphasize something I have already said, this is not to imply that there are not issues and truths worth fighting for. Justice remains justice. God remains God. And to turn our back on our neighbor and not advocate for their good is to fail to love them. But it does mean that we don’t submit to the logic of nihilism, Total War, and the belief that it is only through coercive politics that change can take place.
Instead, I think we see a better model of a Christian witness in 2 Timothy 2:24-26
24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
The context of these verses is Timothy dealing with those who deal with “ignorant controversies” (verse 23), so likely people inside the church, but I think the same logic applies to those outside the church as well. We are not to be quarrelsome, but kind. At the same time, we need to be able to teach, to speak the truth in love, in other words. Sometimes that means patiently enduring evil, listening to it, so that you can correct it in gentleness with the hope that they will repent and turn to the knowledge of the truth and escape the snare of the devil. Remember, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That should be our mindset as well. A gentle, patient, but firm, commitment to the truth that invites others to taste and see that the Lord is good and his Kingdom is their only hope in life and death.
Will they listen? Maybe. Maybe not. That is God’s responsibility. It is your responsibility not to lose hope, not to fall into nihilism.
It seems to me that the model of Christian witness in 2 Timothy is consistent with advocating for biblical truth and justice while living a quiet life and minding our own affairs. It’s less flashy, it’s less emotionally satisfying, it doesn’t please the algorithm, and you won’t make a living at it, but I think it’s what God calls us to.