zimmerBlog

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6267969.stm

On the front page of Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal there was a brief story:

Southern Nigeria Catholics have to prove that they are registered to vote in April in order to continue taking Communion, a local paper reported.

You can read more about this in the BBC story on the above link.

So what kind of example of Christ and Culture is this? It is not one of the perspectives that opposes culture (or merely tolerates it as a necessary evil). It holds a high view of salvation, which excludes a merely synthetic perspective. This means it must be either Christ Above Culture or Christ Transforming Culture.

I guess it depends upon how you interpret the Bishop’s actions. If you are a little more cynical, you might say he is promoting voting in order to better promote the church and it’s agenda. This would make his action an example of Christ Above Culture because of his desire to use cultural institutions (such as democracy) ultimately to promote Christ. This seems to be supported by what the Bishop has said in explaining his motives:

“What we are doing is using religion as a tool for social mobilization. We are trying to make our parishioners realize that they cannot hold a government they did not vote in to account.”

On the other hand if he is trying to make Nigeria (and the world) a better place by encouraging his congregation to vote in order to make the world a better place, this is more of an example of Christ Transforming Culture. As the BBC article says,

“The bishop is not only a firm believer in good Christian values, but he’s also a firm believer in good citizenship and a good citizen must honor his or her civic obligations”