by Andrew Shi
David Brooks, a widely respected conservative social commentator, observes in his New York Times column that Christianity is destined to lose the culture war around sex (if you haven’t yet, I strongly encourage you to read the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage). Mr. Brooks urges Christians to direct their social conservative views more towards visible service such as caring for the underprivileged rather than towards defending traditional dogma. Given Mr. Brooks is a man who practices and writes on spirituality, I find it surprising that he thinks faith will win over culture if it simply picks and choose its fights. For one, I’m not even sure that as a Christian I am called to a movement that will win over the culture. That may be the purpose (and end goal) of any minority movement, but is it the purpose of the Church today? What’s more, it disturbs me that the overtone of this piece is that religion’s role in our society should be a tool for peace.
