My dad passed this on to me. It was written by Duane Litfin, President of Wheaton College. I like what he has to say, and the organized way in which he says it: 

1. All cultures are capable of reflecting aspects of the goodness, beauty, and truth of the Creator, but all cultures are also tainted by sin, rebellion, alienation, and death.
2. All cultures exhibit features that are at least not incompatible with the Lordship of Jesus Christ, but all cultures are also to some extent threatened by the gospel because of its demand for a radical change of allegiance to Christ’s Lordship.
3. All cultures are the focus of both God’s love and His judgment, and are included in His plan of redemption through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
4. The Kingdom of God is multinational, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural, a mosaic whose diversity pleases God.
5. Christians in all cultures can be grateful for their cultural heritage, but they must hold their allegiance to their culture loosely and secondarily to their allegiance to Christ, weighing their own culture and others in light of the revealed Word of God.
6. Human culture and Christ’s Kingdom may overlap but are always distinct, so that Christians must guard against both cultural imperialism (the imposition of one culture on another, especially when uncritically fused with the gospel message or church practices), and cultural syncretism (the admixture of the gospel with incompatible cultural elements).
7. Christians should always value and strive for cultural sensitivity as a prerequisite for effectively communicating the gospel. How to live effectively and faithfully “For Christ and His Kingdom” in our twenty-first century’s globalized environment— that is the challenge for which Wheaton is seeking to prepare its students.

President’s Commentary

Duane Litfin, President Wheaton College

Wheaton (College Magazine)

Volume 12, Issue 4 – Autumn, 2009

What do you think?