Ten Things I Hate About You: #5 - Seed, Scattered and Sown (Or, On being a Christian in a Secular World)

A few weeks ago, at the inaugural InterVarsity Christian Fellowship meeting of the year, one of the leadership team thoughtfully opined on the Parable of the Seed (Matthew 13: 18-23) - specifically of course, what the parable means and how that tied into the "vision" of the group that the leadership team had laid out for itself. Like many other parables, its one which doesn't take a PhD to figure out, and yet deceptively carries a considerable amount of depth. For Christians (or people of faith in general) there are many distractions and disruptions which serve as barriers to belief, and it is up to us to understand where they're coming from and how to deal with them.

Hearing that parable mentioned made me think a lot about how many people in my past experience approach this passage. The obvious and arguably most common understanding of these barriers is that they come from The Outside World; popular and secular culture, in all its myriad forms. The solution? Eliminate them. Anything not directly Christian related or ostensibly Christian is immediately suspect, if not shunned - once I was told by someone that he was disdainful of, and denounced anything that wasn't "Praise Music", and even thought of classical music as sinful for its lack of obvious praise. (I guess someone better go tell J.S. Bach.) It's an understandable position - to surround yourself with Christian culture, as a reinforcing habit.


This is the part where I start tossing in long biological words



This picture, shamelessly ripped off from a site in New Zealand is an illustration of a plant's root system. You can make out where the roots are, but one of the more subtle things about this picture is the greyish haze surrounding the roots, not to mention the small filamentous tendrils that branch off from the roots themselves. All of that comes from what's called mycorrhizal fungi. The term "Mycorrhizal" refers to the nature of the relationship between the host plant and the fungi, which commonly occur in soil, and it's a fascinating relationship.

The fungi is limited in its growth and survival by its ability to produce or acquire nutrients; the plant is limited in its growth and survival by its ability to access water. The solution? Work together. The fungi allow the plant to access more water, and the plant provides the fungi with the nutrients it needs.

The fungi are foreign bodies to the plant's root cells; nevertheless they are accepted when they come into contact with them. Instead of fighting, where the fungi tries to invade the plant for what it needs (to be confronted by the plant's immune system), the fungi and the plant have, in a sense, come to an understanding (okay, okay, I know I'm anthropomorphizing things here, please bear with me!). The fungi as a result prospers, as does the plant. In fact, it's been experimentally shown that plants grown in soil where the fungi have been removed through sterilization actually suffer compared to plants grown in soil with the fungi present.

For all of the talk of the evils of secular music, books, films and people that are often seen and heard bandied about by Christians, We often forget, or even refuse to realize, that among the junk that fills popular culture, there's a great deal of treasure to be had. There's an incredibly powerful Christian message of the meaning and value of selfless sacrifice (among other things) in 300, for example, seen in Miller's depiction of King Leonidas (and conversely, on the arrogance and pride of man, seen in his depiction of King Xerxes I). The Straight Story is a beautiful film about love and forgiveness, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, of course. That's not to excuse of course, the outright garbage that we often see in popular and secular media, but it's no reason to cast all of it with a wide brush stroke of disdainful righteous indignation (and it's not like Christian music isn't guilty of excessive banality, either). For all of the Britney Spears and Paris Hiltons we have to endure, there are people like Thom Yorke and Glen Phillips who have given us music with substance, meaning, and honesty (and I'll even include Trent Reznor, for his understanding of the importance of and meaning of music as expression). There's so much in all of that which people of faith can use to not only better understand other people, but themselves as well, and if we lose out on that, we lose out on a unique and special opportunity to challenge and enrich our collective perspective. Like the plant without the mycorrhizal soil fungi, to me I feel that there'd be something missing in my personal faith if I completely eschewed non-Christian music or books, and for that I really do feel weaker for it. To do so would be like saying that all soil fungi are pathogenic and deleterious to plant growth, advocating the growing of all of our plants in sterilized soil.

Like it or not, while Christians are a community unto themselves they are also a community that is part of a greater whole - and secular culture is an indelible part of that whole. It can be a source of spiritual obstacles, yes, but it can also be a source of spiritual reinforcement and edification as well.