The Grace of God Compells Me to Hang Out with People Unlike Myself

   The following quote is an analysis of Christian engagement with the secular world from Langdon Gilkey's memoir of his internment in the WWII Japanese-run camp, Shantung Compound, after which the book is titled.  It is a slap on the wrist to all Christians who have isolated themselves, behaviorally if not physically, from the secular community around them.  Gilkey is describing the behavior of various religious groups within Shantung Compound during the two and a half years in which they were kept together in alarmingly close quarters.  These comments do not come from someone who is making a passing judgement--Gilkey literally lived side-by-side with these people and had an honest, consistent picture of their behavior over the course of his internment.

   "The Catholic fathers possessed a religious and moral seriousness free of spiritual pride, the communicated to others not how holy they were but their inexhaustible acceptance and warmth toward the more worldly and wayward laymen. Nothing and no one seemed to offend them, or shock them; no person outraged their moral sense.  A person could could on their accepting him, as he could count on their integrity -and such acceptance of others is sadly rare on the part of "moral " people...  ...The fathers mixed amiably with anybody and everybody: with men accustomed to drinking, gambling, swearing, wenching, even taking dope, men replete with all the major and minor vices.  Yet they remained unchanged in their own character by this intimate, personal contact with "the world."

   ...How much less creative, I thought -and how far from the Gospels- is the frequent Protestant reaction of moral disapproval, and of spiritual of not physical withdrawal.  Although they did try to be friendly, the Protestants nevertheless typically huddled together in a compact "Christian remnant."  Not unlike the Pharisees in the New Testament, the kept to their own flock of saved souls, evidently because they feared to be contaminated in some way by this sinful world which they inwardly abhorred.  In contrast, the Catholic fathers mixed.  They made friends with anyone in the camp, helped out, played cards, smoked and joked with them.  They were a means of grace to the whole community." (p. 179)

   I personally believe that "Christian remnant-ism" is the default mode for most Christians, and for most people, simply because we prefer to be around people who think and act like us.  Christian branding (such as Christian radio, movies, literature, education curricula, etc.) has also served to mono-culturize Christians in a way that makes them detectably uncomfortable with non-Christians and non-Christian settings.  And why, if we believe we are Christians because we are justified by Jesus and not our own works, do we think that Christian culture is somehow less sinful than non-Christian culture? Because sin is about motivation and about what we set our affections on, we're just as likely to be influenced into sin by hanging out with Christians as we are with non-Christians. 

  Jesus was so closely associated with secular people that the religious leaders accused him of being one of them, even to the point of calling him a "glutton and a drunkard." (Luke 7:34)  We cannot expect to follow Jesus' example and make disciples of all demographics if we are only comfortable being around people like ourselves--if we only hang out with Christians.  All of us have interests and talents that can be relational inroads towards the people in our work, schools, neighborhoods, garden clubs, gyms, coffee shops, bars, and book clubs. The grace of God compels us to relationally pursue these people because we were first pursued by a Love that won us over.