Three Cheers for Cultural Christianity

by Timon Cline

It is presently in vogue amongst evangelical cultural elites to decry “Cultural Christianity,” or alternatively, “Bible Belt Religion.” Ray Ortlund’s tweet from April 12th encapsulates this mood. “I rejoice at the decline of Bible Belt Religion,” he wrote. “It made bad people worse—in the name of Jesus. Now may we actually believe in Him, so that our churches stand out with both the truth of gospel doctrine and the beauty of gospel culture. To that end, I gladly devote my life.”

The basic idea here is that Bible Belt religion is the broadly Christian culture that characterizes the evangelical stronghold of the South and Southwest United States. In response to his thread he clarified, “By ‘Bible Belt Religion’ I mean a nominal identification with Christianity motivated by social advantage and self-importance. It names Jesus, but not with a true heart. The proof: it mistreats those who really do love Him. I have seen this.” And back in 2016 he tweeted, “We’re losing a Bible Belt religion that held us back anyway. We’ve gained A29, TGC, ERLC, T4G, reformed hip hop and poetry, etc. Great!”

For Ortlund, Bible Belt religion, cultural Christianity, is not simply hollow, unregenerate, and useless, but actually an impediment to true Christianity, and a barrier to the spread of the Gospel. His basic contention is that Christianity only endured in nominal form in the geographic South because it afforded social advantage. This is not an opinion unique to Ortlund. Russell Moore recently posted a similar but lengthier take on his blog. I do not mean to pick too much on either of them here. I am sure he is a kind, earnest, and faithful pastor. It is just that he and his public remarks are representative of the dominant persuasion of evangelical leaders—at least the “Big Eva,” conference circuit-riding, Gospel Coalition-writing types. The prevailing opinion in those circles regarding cultural Christiainty is misguided and full of ironies and contradictions.

Ironically, Ortlund and others chant, “good riddance!” to the very cultural conditions that facilitated evangelical growth and eventual dominance in America—namely, the Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church in America. It was in the nineteenth century (Second) Great Awakening that all three denominations gained a foothold in the South over and against the Anglican parishes already there and what would come to be referred to as mainline Protestantism in the North. But this does not at all imply that the people of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia comprised some unreached people group that had never yet heard the name of Christ uttered in their midst.

In fact, looking at America generally, the nineteenth century was the most opportune time for establishing new, distinctly American denominations and seeing them flourish. By 1845, when the SBC was founded, the last state (Massachusetts) had disestablished the Congregational church. Though the establishment clause had not yet been incorporated to the states, historically established churches, for a host of socio-political reasons, had already lost their position. The playing field opened up and religious competition began to be governed by that infamous invisible hand.

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