Open Culture thought for the day

The Open Culture website is excellent, and it's a refreshing part of the new democratised approach to the Capital of Culture since Phil Redmond came on board.

They're publishing a "cultural thought" for each day of the year and they asked me to write one. I had lots of ideas floating around and the one I chose became more solid after I had a chat with Phil Redmond yesterday. It wasn't anything Phil said, it seems that just being with him helps you to be creative!

Anyway I've sent them this thought on "Christian Culture". I don't know when they'll put it on their site, but here it is for you to see first, and to comment on.

"Christian Culture"

A new word has entered our vocabulary in recent months and it’s even been the topic of a debate in parliament. The word is “Christianophobia”. It’s related to words like Islamophobia and homophobia and I suppose it means something like “an attitude of prejudice or discrimination against people who practise the Christian faith”. And if that definition ever ends up in a dictionary you’ll know who made it up.

As someone who is a practising Christian I recognise what such discrimination feels like, but I’m not one to stamp my feet or throw the dummy out of the pram. In 2008, in Liverpool as much as anywhere else, practising Christians - and there are still hundreds of thousands of us in Merseyside - need to earn the right to have our voice heard. Christendom has been and gone and I’m glad of it. All I would ask now is that Christians are treated as well as other sizeable minorities in our glorious, chaotic jumble of a society.

And then there’s “Christian culture”. What does such a phrase mean? If it’s taken to means olde worlde buildings and a yearning for the way the world used to be, then I want nothing to do with it. If it means a world where people are nicey-nice with one another, holding their passions in bay for the sake of politeness and inoffensive gentility, than that’s not for me either.

For me the marks of true Christian culture have to reflect the character of the one from whom it takes its name, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. That culture will be a marked by a passion for justice and for real goodness. It will have a firm foundation of unashamed belief without scoring points off others. It will be attractive and real and subversive.

My hope for 2008 is that those in our great city who are passionate about their faith will have their voice heard alongside everyone else. I believe that voice, if heard authentically, will be both attractive and challenging.