Christians and Separation: Too Far?

Divide and conquer. It’s a time tested strategy for warfare, and it seems an equally useful tactic in the religious struggle as well. Somehow, we seem to miss it, as if dividing ourselves into obscurity is somehow noble. Before you know it, obscurity naturally turns into irrelevancy, and what you fought so hard to protect is now no longer in existence.

Sounds sensational, huh? Is it though? Is it so hard to believe that we could spend so much time criticizing our own, unhappy with what the church down the street is doing, that we forget that babies are being killed, just because they’re not convenient? Does it bother you that while a homeless man goes hungry for both food and human compassion, we bicker over musical preference as if God had one? It should, but sadly as I look out on the face of modern Christianity, I see that it clearly doesn’t for most.

So what is biblical separation? Is there such a thing? If so, how far does it reach and what should our reaction to it be? As promised in Music Series: Part 2, I’m going to attempt an answer to these questions. First off, let’s start with the Scripture that is used by some Christians as the launchpad for their separatist tirades (NKJV):

• 2 Corinthians 6:17
• 1 Thessalonians 5:22
• Psalm 4:3
• Titus 2:14
• 1 Peter 2:9
• John 15:19
• John 17:6,14-18

Let me backtrack a little here before we jump in. In my opening paragraph, I used the example of a divide and conquer warfare strategy. Let me be clear. There are some of you out there (you know who you are) who, when you read that, thought,

Exactly! The devil is trying to divide us by sending in people that believe and try to promote lies, and if everyone would just believe like I believe, the we wouldn’t have this problem!

No offense, but could you please just SHUT UP!!! There is absolutely no convincing you that you might be wrong, so you’re wasting your time by reading this. If you can’t read this with the realization that you might be wrong, then please stop reading this site and don’t come back. You’re officially not welcome. However, for those of you who are willing to accept when you might be wrong, please stay and read on. Remember, we’re on a quest for truth, not the reinforcement of our predetermined opinions, myself included. OK, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the meat.

What would happen if you went around wearing a sign that said “I am a Republican!”? What would people think about you? That’s an easy one, right? They’d think that you were a Republican. What if the sign said, “I am a Computer Technician!” Of course, they’d think you were a Computer Technician. Identification is the underlying principle behind the idea of Biblical separation, that is, the Bible makes it clear that we are not to be identified as a non-Christian, quite the contrary, we are to be salt and light, not ashamed to be identified as believers! To use a relevant, yet highly overused phrase of pop culture, “If you got it, flaunt it!”

Let me ask a question: if a person was driving down the road in an automobile, what about that automobile would make you think “That person’s a Christian. I can tell by what they drive!”? NOTHING!!! There is nothing about an automobile that suggests anything about the religion of the person driving. Perhaps a bumper sticker or an emblem could shed light on the issue, but nothing about the car itself gives any indication whatsoever. The same goes for houses, lawn mowers, eyeglasses, watches, televisions, or most any other consumer item. There is no such thing as a Christian Air Conditioner!

When a product, sound, picture, location, or word lends no suggestion as to whether or not you are a believer, it does not fall into the category of necessary separation. However, when something tells people that you are not a believer, but suggests you are indeed a part of “the world”, then THAT is what we should be avoiding.

For example, if you decide to go to the movies, you are in no way identifying yourself as a potential non-believer. I guarantee (in fact, I would be willing to bet this, and I’d win a lot of money too) that if you sat a non-Christian outside of a movie theater and asked them to identify the Christians in the crowd, they absolutely could not do so based solely on their entrance into the front doors of the theater. Therefore, going to the movies isn’t wrong. But, if you go inside and watch which movie the people enter into, you can more easily tell which movies a Christian should and shouldn’t go into, and therefore could reasonably identify those who are acting like non-believers. If you’re a Christian and you walk in the door to see Basic Instinct 2, you’re not doing a very good job of avoiding identification with “the world” now are you?

Listen, this is a very simple principle that we’ve grossly overcomplicated. Have we taken it too far? ABSOLUTELY!!! If we followed a consistent application of the separation that many Christians would have you to believe is the truth, we’d all have to live on a deserted island, and even that might not work since cannibals live on deserted islands too.

Before I close, I want to make it very clear what is NOT necessary to separate from:

• products of sold by an owner who’s lifestyle is clearly not Christian.

I know, I know, some of you are saying, “but Nathan, I can’t possibly spend my money on a product in which the proceeds will go to support this guy!!!” Get used to it, ’cause every time you fill up at the pump, you are probably sending your money to terrorists. Every time you watch television, someone in management is getting paid. Do you think everyone in the chain of command is a saint? It’s just a reality we have to live in, and you have no Biblical responsibility to avoid it. Remember, we still have to live IN this world.

• places where objectionable activities take place.

Hear me out. Unless the place where you are planning on going would lead someone to reasonably believe you are a non-Christian, it simply doesn’t violate the separation principle. Obviously, if you are going downtown where people are getting drunk and meeting strangers for a one-night-stand, you shouldn’t participate in that activity, but there are plenty of other things to do downtown that are harmless. The same principle applies to the movies (including video rental stores), malls, restaurants, etc. Some people take this thing WAY overboard.

• and finally, clothing.

I may post on this later, so stay tuned, but let me preface it with this: I’m not telling you to dress like a hooker or anything, but some people take the principle of dress separation too far as well. For instance, the Hell’s Angels wear biker gear with the words “Hell’s Angels” embroidered on them. Some people would say that it’s wrong to wear biker gear, regardless of the lettering on it, because it identifies you with the Hell’s Angels, and other biker gangs. This may be a little gray, but I would say that wearing biker gear with the name of a biker gang on it WOULD be wrong, but simply wearing leather and riding a motorcycle is about as neutral as it comes. Come on people, think a little!!!

Anyway, that about wraps it up. I may refer to this entry in future posts if the subject comes up. Hopefully by defining what separation ought to be, we can avoid getting bogged down with the subject later.

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