(5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)
Loading ...The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley
We are facing a crisis in civility in our society. Whereas in the 1990s polarizing talk radio was a growing novelty, today this level of demeaning, caricaturing, hyperbole-laden discourse is the New Normal in America’s public square. Even worse, it seems to have found a hotbed of grassroots support among American evangelical Christians. Evangelical Christians, it seems, feel the ‘pain’ of our multicultural, pluralistic society more than most. In fact, to many of the rest of us (this would include emerging, mainline, and progressive Christians), multiculturalism and pluralism aren’t negative realities at all, but something to be celebrated. Even so, emerging and missional Christians often wrestle with how to witness authentically to the life of God found in Jesus without culturally steam-rolling our friends, neighbors, and relatives.
Enter a self-confessed ‘conservative evangelical’ California pastor, whose book The Diversity Culture is sub-titled Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Barristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone In Between.
Oh no, I grimaced when I first heard about this book (Hey – we take our book-screening seriously at TheOOZE!) – another culture warrior with an axe to grind. Not so. Raley is a compassionate, humane voice, who does a surprisingly good (if not slightly over-stuffed) sympathetic portrait of a woman who thinks quite differently than he, right in the first chapter. He then paints a compelling picture of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan (read: wrong religion, wrong culture, wrong lifestyle, wrong gender) woman at the well as an example of cross-cultural communication that is both clear and without fear.
Our new diversity culture makes evangelicals uncomfortable, Raley proposes; not because they feel threatened, but because they feel excluded. Matthew tackles the social tensions between evangelicals and the diversity culture. Drawing on analysis of contemporary media, ancient sources, and Scripture, The Diversity Culture examines cultural barriers and how they can be broken, helping Christians understand this cosmopolitan group on their own terms. This illuminating tome gives Christians the understanding and tools they need to cross socioeconomic, ethical, and ideological barriers and heal relationships in the name of Christ.
timothy_mathis
The latest book I picked up for free from the folks at The Ooze was The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley. It’s a book written for fat conservative Baptists sitting in San Francisco coffee bars trying to convert post-moderns.
It’s not that it’s a bad book – it’s an earnest and insightful introduction to modern Stuff White People Like culture, actually, written by a conservative minister in rural California. The author writes well, and seems like a nice and genuine guy who understands modern American culture. It’s just that this is another one of those “us vs. them” how-to books – “if you want to save the pomos and the homos, you’ve got to ________”. He really cares about us, and he’s not a bigot or anything, he just wants us to convert from our immoral and unrighteous ways. I’m sure you could find similar examples with the Muslims and the Jews and the Catholics and the Gays and the Teens and the Commies. Good for him for being honest about intentions, but the schtick is getting old. Nice try, but the book just left this pomo with a bad taste in his mouth. Evangelical brothers, it’s time to recognize your intellectual place in the diversity culture with a bit of humility, just like the rest of us.
Tim
Sep 21st, 2009
addsalt
With the normal circles I find myself running in are not often Christian friendly, so I was interested in this book expecting it to draw some links between christianity and the “Agnostic Students” and how those conversations take place.
The book was not exactly what I was expecting.
Ironically, the book groups the diverse group of people who are often hostile to Christianity (the so called “Diversity Culture”), into one stereotypical lady. A person who is interested in eastern philosophy, college educated (probably double majored in British literature and African basket weaving), middle aged and well to do. This person used to go to church, but found the faith presented (and the lifestyle of the congregation) there as lacking.
After some undercutting of postmodernism, and identifying some more trendy philosophies as lacking in depth I was concerned. Laughing about the catch definitions popular in the late 90’s I flipped to the back to find chapters called “The Power of Testimony” and “Confront a Friend” I knew where this was going. I’ve read books like this before.
But again, the book was not what I was expecting.
The first half of the book introduces us to this steriotypical person. From the starting point that evangelicals are nervous about these type of people, it tries to help us understand where she is coming from. Using the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, it describes how Jesus reacts to people who would be hostile to their message. Helping smooth the waters that this person is not so much anti-Christian, but anti-Christian rhetoric (and for very good reasons).
For me, the last half of the book critiques the methods evangelicals use. In a way that is indirect and non-judgemental (which I can’t reproduce), there are suggestions about truly connecting with people. It contrasts ideological discussions (which are about scoring points, thinking quickly, and counter arguments), and relational discussions (which are about give and take to find truth). Any discussion that starts with convince me that God exists isn’t going to be the conversation you were hoping for.
The book directly confronts the Christian subculture and how it isolates people from the rest of the world. It breeds conformity and prohibits independent thought. This reduces Christianity down to glib phrases, and makes Christians into the people the Diversity Culture enjoy to marginalise.
Using the topic of gender identity, the book discusses presumed inferences Christians find in direct questions. Most Christians naturally react strongly to any hints of homosexuality and tend to treat topics with very broad strokes. People are more than a single decision made in their lives, and need to be treated as such. Confrontation comes absolutely last in the book, and is only done between close friends without condemnation. It is not shied away from, but raining surfer down on everyone around you will start nothing but a flame war.
I was pleasantly surprised with this book (but it took getting half way through the book to find that out). Looking back, the first half is very necessary to people who are routinely isolated in the Christian subculture to get them to hear the rest of the book. The last half is insightful, direct, and written in a very open way. I don’t think I was the intended audience for the book, and unfortunately I don’t think the intended audience would ever pick this book up.
Link to original post
Sep 28th, 2009
SGill4613
The book written by Matthew Raley entitled The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between is certainly one which seems to have a lot of expectations just from the title. Yet Raley’s book does not cover any of these specific groups, but wonderfully groups them under the umbrella of the “Diversity Culture”.
Written by a person who does not feel at home in any particular category, but would perhaps best identify with conservative evangelicals, he does a fantastic job of pointing out where they have failed in this new individually tailored culture.
In the past, the evangelical community has attempted to reach out to the people they do not quite understand by using marketing systems which were popular a decade or more ago (us church folks are always a bit behind the curve). Instead of calling for us to catch up with the curve, Raley dares us to disregard the curve altogether and replace it with Jesus’ model which comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 4 where Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well.
Instead of using outdated marketing strategies which people in the Diversity Culture will smell a mile away, Raley points out three different kinds of confrontations which he feels Jesus used, which go from subtle to blunt. First is to give a new point of view. Second is to decline to agree with excuses. Third is to define options. All of these options are ones which Jesus employed with the woman at the well, which led to her declaring that Jesus is the Christ.
This is not a book for someone looking for a quick answer to convert someone who does not believe in the same things you do, although the sub title might seem to imply it. Using Jesus as a model for conversion is not an easy task, but reading this book will help give you the confidence and biblical background necessary to take on the hard job ahead.
Sep 29th, 2009
RyanBraught
As a member of the Ooze Viral Bloggers I get to review a book about once a month and write a blog about it. The book that I am currently reading is called “Diversity Culture.” I picked it because of the subtitle. I got it a week or two ago and started reading it. So far it is an interesting read, especially because of the Scripture Text that the author Matthew Raley uses as a Case Study of how we should engage our Diversity Culture. He uses John 4, which is become more and more one of my favorite passages of Scripture. He does a great job of doing some exegetical and historical work on the setting of John 4, in relation to Jewish/Samaritan relations, prejudice regarding race and gender, and a host of others issues that show up in John 4.
Here are some quotes that have stood out in the first 4 chapters of the book.
“The Diversity Culture: The dominant American ethos of openness toward all beliefs and spiritual traditions.”
“Evangelicals in America have a distinct subculture. They tend to worship in churches with conservative political and theological views. The strongest bases of evangelicalism are in suburbia, and the movement is disproportionately white and middle class. Evangelicals have their own media, reading different books and magazines than secular people, visiting different Web sites, listening to Christian music and radio, and often watching Christian TV stations and movies.”
“the fear often drives evangelicals to a blanket rejection of every aspect of the diversity culture without asking enough questions. For example, the diversity culture is overwhelmingly on the political left, while evangelicals are mostly on the right. But progressive political views are not necessarily anti-Christian. Is evangelism about winning souls, or votes?”
“The term postmodern has too convulted a history to summarize so simplistically.”
“Street Postmodernism: A set of attitudes that enables a person to navigate today’s social ambiguity without getting hurt.”
“Today’s street postmodernism is another form of the street philosophies that people develop in every age. And what do I mean by street philosophy? It’s an ethic developed by living, not by studying.”
So I am only on the fourth chapter of the book, and there is much more ahead. I will blog about the book in the days to come as I continue to read it. I am hoping it will give me more insights for my preaching, my missional kingdom life, and how to interact with people who are distinctly different than myself.
Sep 30th, 2009
gieseguy
A few weeks ago I received a book from Mike Morrell of the Viral Bloggers to review. The name of the book is “The Diversity Culture” with a tag line of “Creating conversations of faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and everyone in between”. I must say I was hoping to get one of the other more interesting titles and well known authors. To my surprise however this was a very interesting and engaging read.
The author is Matthew Raley a Pastor of an Evangelistic Free church in California. He comes across in this book as more of a prophet to that body (evangelicalism) than a defender of its culture. He is clear at bringing out the pitfalls of bigotry, stereotyping, labels etc… that so many of us in evangelicalism are guilty of. He calls this the “reject correct” approach. He doesn’t let those in the post Modernism or emerging streams off either as he shows that the “accept-affirm” approach also has its weaknesses. These are just a couple of the great points of tension he writes about in the book relating to the diverse culture we are all in. He then contrasts and compares this tension with the way Jesus related to the women at the well. The dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well has always been one of my favorite biblical narratives. Raley takes this narrative to new heights as he applies it’s principals to how we as Christians can effectively relate to the diverse cultural mindsets that exist in our culture right now.
This would be a great book for Christians to have a discussion about. It’s not only current in its relevance but prophetic in its overall message of hope in relating to others of diverse philosophies.
Sep 30th, 2009
frgregoryj
When I was in college I remember complaining to Fr Chris, my confessor at the time, about having to read Freud. For the life of me, I can’t remember what my actual complaints were—or even if I actually had any substantive objections to Freud besides the fact that he wasn’t Christian and he was hard to read (and of the two I suspect the latter was more my concern than the former. I was a bright but lazy undergraduate.)
Anyway, looking back on the situation I imagined Father and I talked about the matter a little bit. Eventually though Fr Chris would (as he usually did) quiet, bow his head for a moment and then look up and say “If Freud says anything true and all you can’t find Christ in the truth that he presents, the problem isn’t Freud it’s you! You shouldn’t be reading Freud!”
Over the last almost 30 years since that conversation I’ve thought about Father’s comment. If I can’t find Christ in a thinker, a situation or a person, the problem isn’t outside but inside; it is me who is blind to Christ as He is present in that moment.
The late Fr Alexander Schmemman had a similar observation about missionaries. Somewhere he says that a missionary isn’t someone who goes and brings Christ where He isn’t. A missionary is someone who goes somewhere and finds Christ there waiting to greet him. Christ waits to greet me, He waits to greet each of us, if only I am willing to see Him.
Learning how to see Christ in the midst of my daily life, in the face of my neighbor, in the books that I read, in the events that make up the ebb and flow of my day, is more a challenge than I think many of us realize. For not a few Christians, especially if they take the spiritual life seriously, life is often a more or less frantic and desperate search for the presence of Christ in their lives.
None of this is to say that these desperate seekers are passive Christians. They aren’t. In fact, the more I have trouble encountering Christ in my everyday life the more I am likely to fill my day with activity, purposefully, driven activity, that I hope will (some how) reveal Christ to me, Or failing that, I hope that the work will fill up the emptiness of my life.
I know so many Orthodox Christians who approach the spiritual life as merely one more thing on their to do lists. For these people the spiritual life is just another series of tasks—take out the garbage, pay the bills, make the beds, do the shopping; daily prayers, spiritual reading, fasting, Vespers, Orthos, Divine Liturgy, and confession—things that have to be done because their in the job description of a pious and Orthodox Christian.
But amidst all the activity there is emptiness, a discontent and discomfort with self and others that takes the makes the compulsive in their approach to the life of prayer and which bears the bitter fruit of impatience and even anger with others. Above there is in them an anger at God Who just isn’t there.
While all of this is tragic enough for the person (and again, there are many, many, many Christians in this situation, no few of them clergy), it becomes more tragic still when the person tries to fill the emptiness through evangelism. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15, NKJV).
The human ground of the Pharisees’ hypocrisy is as common as it is real. While it is a temptation for all of us, it is a special temptation to those who are involved in ministry—whether we are clergy or laity, Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Protestant or Evangelical.
One Evangelical Christian pastor, Matthew Raley, has taken a hard look at this temptation as it is embodied in the discomfort many Evangelical Christians have with what he calls the “diversity culture.” He describes the evangelical and pastoral challenges (and opportunities) facing American Evangelical Christians (and I think most orthodox, and Orthodox, Christians) in his book The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hipsters, Political Activists & Everyone in Between.
For better and worse, diversity culture, that shared commitment to “openness toward all beliefs and spiritual traditions” that sees as “bigotry” the “worst evil” has become the “dominant American ethos.” For those who embrace the ethic of diversity—and Raley argues correctly that most Americans have—“Every shelter for narrow thinking must be eroded by fresh winds” of modern (or actually, post-modern) relativising thought (p. 13).
The author uses a number of devices structure his analysis and the practical suggests that make up the book.
The first is a fictional encounter between two, middle aged, representatives of Evangelical Christianity and diversity culture. Representing the latter is a graphic designer, the former is represented by a man in a cheap blue suit. They meet in Café Siddhartha a San Francisco coffee shop.
Each chapter begins with a selection “from the ‘Most E-mailed’ list of articles on the New York Times Web site in 2006-2008.” The author does this in an attempt (largely successfully I think) to allow “the diversity culture to speak for itself, even to choose the topics of discussion.” In order to gain some critical, biblically informed, distance of diversity culture and the negative response it evokes in Evangelical Christians, he concludes each chapter with an analogical reading of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John (4:13-30).
While I admire the attempt, I think that the author is less successful here. His attempt to see a parallel between “the Samaritan-Jewish hostility and the [Café] Siddhartha-evangelical hostility” depends on his using historical research to re-create the internal dialog of Jews and Samaritans of the time (p. 18). While this can be, in small doses, a powerful preaching tool, it became distracting for me especially in comparison with the author’s greater understanding of contemporary culture.
More serious theologically, is his attempt to apply his analogical method to the Person of Jesus Christ. I found this more than a little distracting especially since it seemed to me that in his attempt to reconstruction of Christ’s psychology he lost sight of Christ’s divinity. Again, while I understand, and even appreciate, the pedagogical intent, there are times when the text flirts with Christological heresy.
Putting that to the side, however, I do think that Raley has much to say of great value not only to his own Evangelical Christian community but all of us who would engage the patrons at Café Siddhartha.
For those who are familiar with post-Modern thought (to say nothing of historical Christian thought and theology) much of the book will be distracting. At the same time I think it is unreasonable to criticize an author for not writing the book I would have written. Raley is offering his reader a primer on the theory and practice of evangelism in a post-Modern context and on that score he succeeds admirably.
What I found most valuable (and personally moving) were his concluding mediation on would I call the vocation of being an evangelist to the patrons of Café Siddhartha (pp. 163-164). I won’t quote it all, but let me offer a few lines:
“. . . America is full of believers who don’t fit anywhere, but who were made to leave an impression.”
“If you follow Christ, you have a wealth of insight that is uniquely yours.”
“God has . . . selected experiences for you, many of them agonizing—experiences that make you feel cut off from others. . . . These experiences, in spite of the isolation they create, are more of the wealth with which God has endowed you.”
Yes, yes, I know, especially taken out of context, these quotes read like a series of slogans on inspirational posters. And yes, there is a great distance between the affirmations above and actually putting these insights into practice. But we most start somewhere mustn’t we?
Thinking back to my conversation in Fr Chris office, I realize that what was true for Raley as an undergraduate was equally true for me at that time in my life. “As I discovered, the thing that kept me from winning souls was my self-indulgence. I was too confident that I knew the people I was dealing with, too quick to judge their attitudes and experiences.” As a result, and again like the undergraduate Raley, “My Gospel was
self-indulgent too. It consisted of the points I wanted to make rather than the truths people needed to hear” (p. 165).
And if I think about it a little more, I realize that for all I’ve changed and matured, I am still a little bit like my 20 year old self. And it is as a gentle correction to that residual, but still real, spiritual self-indulgence that I think Matthew Raley has the most to offer me and any reader who takes serious an approach to evangelism grounded in personal sanctity and who wants to find the welcoming Face of Christ in his or her everyday life.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
Oct 1st, 2009
mhasty
http://thegreatrescue.blogspot.com/2009/09/diversity-culture-by-matthew-raley-book.html
The subtitle to this book immediately grabbed my attention: “Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between.” As a youth pastor I have a large number of students that have friends (the majority % of my students have grown up in Christian homes) that fall into one of these categories. I have family that falls into this category.
I began to read through the pages and became immediately engaged with the coffee shop “Café Siddhartha” in which two individuals come to the table with very different perspectives on life and God and each other without saying a single word. I’m guilty of this.
Matthew Raley does an amazing job painting a picture of what the Diversity Culture is “the dominant American ethos of openness toward all beliefs and spiritual traditions”. Raley walks through the preconceived notions most come to the table with. He encourages the reader to figure out what their own personal preconceived notions are and to wrestle with them.
Raley compares the conversations we are to engage in with those immersed in the diversity culture with the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. This is a very well written aspect of the book. It leaves the reader feeling encouraged knowing that Jesus walked through the same had conversations that we will have to in order to impact the culture. Raley is passionate about this cause stating that “unbelievers also need the endowments Christ has given you. As long as they think of Christian spirituality in terms of the group they know as evangelicals, they will not follow Christ. But if you show them the power of the risen Jesus in your testimony, the freedom you have found through the Scriptures, and the love you have stirred in members of Christ’s family I think unbelievers will see the gospel for the first time. In think, in fact, that you can only show the gospel to the people of the diversity culture as an individual. You have to stick out.”
The love of Christ must be shown to the world not simply told.
The Diversity Culture is a great book I recommend it to any an all who are looking for an hope in sharing there faith in the midst of this current world.
Oct 2nd, 2009
kevinstewart
I just finished reading the book The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley. The author is the senior pastor of the Orland Evangelical Free Church in northern California. He writes this book to the evangelical that wants to be a “soul winner” of the “diversity culture” so needless to say this book may not sit well with everyone. I must admit I don’t think I was the intended audience of the book but found some good things in it none the less.
The Diversity Culture discusses the bigotry, stereotyping, and assumptions that often occur when people interact with others while using the story of Jesus and the woman at the well to present an alternative approach to sharing your beliefs with others.
To see the original post go to http://kevinstewart.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/the-diversity-culture/
Oct 3rd, 2009
Kevin Powell
Clearly, I’m not the target audience for this book. I don’t find the idea of diversity controversial. In fact, I find it astonishing that the notion of “diversity” is even under discussion. Especially to the point where Matthew Raley needs to guide an anxious reader through it.
I’ll save you the twenty bucks. The book can be summed up thusly: people are more than the boxes we put them in or categories we create. So, throw away your stereotypes and prejudices and love people like Jesus did (does).
Stop the presses.
While Raley tries his darndest to assure the reader that the “diversity culture” isn’t really as bad or scary as they might think, I couldn’t help but think as I was reading, “The problem isn’t ‘diversity’! The problem is the culture of compliance that is your primary audience! The problem isn’t this ‘emerging’ culture. The problem is that some Christians confuse cultural and political power with God’s power!”
According to the book jacket, “A new culture has emerged. It preaches spiritual openness, moral flexibility, and social diversity – and its making evangelicals feel uncomfortable. Threatened. Excluded.”
What “new culture” is he talking about? The “diversity culture” may be “new” to some evangelicals who’ve secluded themselves in the suburbs for the last half century. But for anyone who’s been paying attention since the 1960’s will note that diversity is not “new.” Nor is it an ideology to resist or to be guided through. It’s a present reality due to the fact that self-expression is the cornerstone of what it means to live in the 21st century western world.
Raley means well. But I wonder if this book should have been written 40 years ago. The fact that this book apparently needed to be written tells me that there’s a problem within some evangelical/conservative/red state thinking.
If they’re feeling “threatened” they need to ask themselves WHAT is being threatened. Is it loss of privilege? Trouble finding their place in a changing world they had no hand in creating? The loss of safety in the majority? The disappearance of a past that never really existed?
I don’t know if I’m encouraged or saddened by the fact that they’re just figuring out now that we don’t live in a binary universe, that traditional rural values do not equal historic faith, that Christ’s mission is not to create a “Christian culture” but a New Creation, that our job as Christians is to love people without an agenda.
If any of the above is news to you, then you might find Raley’s book helpful. Even challenging. But those who’ve had their eyes open for the past four decades might want to take a pass on this one.
http://kevingpowell.blogspot.com/2009/10/diversity-culture-as-opposed-to-what.html
Oct 6th, 2009
expastor
I reviewed this book before it came out, breaking my rule of not criticizing things until I actually read them. However, the ad from Books & Culture was so bad that I simply couldn’t resist. Now, however, I’ve read it, and I’m happy to say I was mostly right, and to be honest, partly wrong. Raley writes for evangelicals, but he does so at a level slightly more learned than the typical “this is how you talk to scary pagans” book I see at the local Christian kitsch store. The previous criticisms I had of the book’s premise do apply. Learning to talk to pagans in order to get them saved is disingenuous. If you have an agenda going in, you’re not a friend; you’re a proselytizer. If you try to get your friend saved, then you’re probably still a friend, but if you persist in offering me something I don’t want, I will write you off as a sales rep for a company with merchandise I don’t want. Raley likes to believe that he stands on solid ground with his arguments, even referring to people like me as inhabitants of a “bankrupt” form of life. Wow. Good thing the pagans aren’t reading this themselves; they might be offended to know their chosen lives are bankrupt and in need of a savior. Although, most Christians are hard pressed to define salvation in non-eschatological terms (this does not apply to Anabaptists and their kin, nor to the friendly group at Sojo), so the offer of salvation is predicated on a gift I don’t want and a reward they can’t demonstrate.
Here are the problems with Raley’s approach in no particular order, except for the first two because they reveal how flawed his methodology really is.
* There is no such thing as the “diversity culture.” It’s a phrase Raley coined, and it’s the same old Hybels-talk in newer, more postmodern clothes. You can’t break Americans (Indians, Malians, etc.) into convenient subgroups so that you can target your advertising (err…I mean evangelistic) campaign. Raley uses the denizens of a coffee shop, Cafe Siddhartha (that’s Buddha for you non-hipsters out there), to define the diversity culture. Umm, Pastor Raley, the entire culture is diverse, including your church in northern California. As for the postmodern stuff, please stop. You’re ten years late for the diversity/relativism train. We’re not all relativists; we just don’t find anything all that compelling about your soteriological model.
* Raley uses the “most emailed” section of the New York Times online edition to discover what the diversity culture finds important, including (deep sigh) transgendered toddlers. The methodology here is so absurd that any sociology or anthropology prof would tell Raley to resubmit his thesis with a better calculus as to how to evaluate culture. Do only pagans and the diversity culture read the NYT? Do Christians not read it? Does everyone that reads it email a link to an interesting story? What kind of sample group are you getting? What does your control group look like? This is straightforward marketing with a scattershot methodology that demonstrates people who read the NYT occasionally forward interesting pieces.
* So, so, so tired of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well used as a model for how to reach me. Pastor Raley, Jesus and the Samaritan woman shared some crucial assumptions, including a conviction that theism was the correct path. The woman at the well may help you talk to Muslims (and that’s doubtful since all the monotheists have a successionist view of their beloved texts), but it won’t help you with deists, atheists, skeptics, and monists.
* This from my previous review: “…if Christians have grown up in a culture (church) that has so fundamentally misinformed them about what the world is like, that would be the fault of the church, and the cure is systemic, just like the problem. My suspicion, based on teaching college students every year, is that young people have absorbed their culture far better and are far more comfortable with being ‘postmoderns’ than crisis culture book writers realize. If you’re trying to train people over 50 to communicate to the “postmodern culture,” you’re tilting windmills. They either live and breathe in that culture, or their best chance is just casual, polite acquaintances with denizens of that scary culture. Culture is (at least) language and semiotics, and only people who grow up in a particular culture or immerse themselves in it communicate correctly within it.”
* There is no such thing as a postmodernist. No such thing. No agreed upon set of criteria exists. No practices. No assumptions that can be generalized. Stop targeting us and just try to be a friend. People are different: different assumptions, desires, fears, hopes, beliefs. If postmodernity teaches us anything at all, it’s that each person stands uniquely within their own frame of reference and that frame of reference can’t be quantified into some sort of evangelistic algorithm. Stop. Please.
original post from http://www.theparishokc.org
Oct 8th, 2009
artzar
Inter-religious dialogue interested me before coming to Canada. Now, multi-ethnic environment in which I live give me opportunity to have various connection in religious space.
As part of the “Viral TheOoze Bloggers” I was able to read (and think) Matthew Raley’s book that presents aspects of reporting fair to other religions and how to seeds Christian faith in a hostile environment for it. Common ground on which discussions can occur depends on how much you are willing to go toward to those who refused or did not interested in Christianity. To step into uncertain territory – café shop, pubs – is not an advantage for churchy people (in the sense that the church building enhances its doctrinal argument).
The book does not explain in detail various theological concepts but brings some ideas about relational knowledge in a multi religious environment full with a different perspective on life than the Christian understanding. The human desire/curiosity for a new spiritual path or accept the diversity of methods by which “God” saved or enlightening spiritual encounter, is crossing in Christianity with the trenchant assertion of Jesus Christ: “I am the way truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me “. – John 14:6.
In his earthly life Jesus did not bypassed opportunities of cultural and religious interaction – Samaritan woman case – gave us a model to cross cultural boundaries.
Author’s aim is to encourage evangelicals to engage in discussions about their religion promoting the unique image of Real Christ.
The book is not mixing religion seeking common path. The main idea is different, to challenge the evangelical person to move from box of security doctrine and to present why Jesus is even worthy of thought and listened.
The Diversity Culture is not a book of apologetics but is one of relational approach in the manner of discussions with those who belong to other religions. To get involved in a dialogue today is not easy, but it is becoming increasingly necessary.
original romanian version
http://blog.punctul.com/2009/10/09/the-diversity-culture-matthew-raley/
Oct 9th, 2009
cirdog
If post-modern Christianity is faithful to its “relativistic” roots, there is no need to convince anyone of its relevance. Why? Because all faiths are equally true. While pluralism poses a distinct problem for traditional, absolutist, evangelicals, evangelism creates a similar quandary for post-moderns. I mean, why engage someone about the truth of Christianity when one views all beliefs as equal? Post-modernism effectively strips Scripture of absolutes, which creates a problem for a movement whose Founder claimed to be the only way to God (Jn. 14:6).
Pastor Matthew Raley’s new book “The Diversity Culture” tackles the relational intersections of the Gospel in a secular society. The book’s subtitle is “Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between. ” Whew! Did he miss anyone? Actually, the colorful demographic sampling is representative of the daunting task facing evangelicals. Our ever-expanding multicultural vista can be intimidating… especially for those who still take the “Great Commission” at face value. So how do we engage those of differing philosophical persuasions without coming across as elitist, judgmental, or close-minded?
Part of it is overcoming our own fears and misconceptions about the culture of diversity.
“…fear often drives evangelicals to a blanket rejection of every aspect of the diversity culture without asking enough questions. For example, the diversity culture is overwhelmingly on the political left, while evangelicals are mostly on the right. But progressive political views are not necessarily anti-Christian. Is evangelism about winning souls, or votes? …More deeply, evangelicals can easily brand an openness to new perspectives as “relativism.” But is it relativistic to hear someone out, or to participate in discussions that may not resolve neatly? (pg. 14)”
I think Raley’s right about our tendency toward “blanket rejection,” to pigeonhole people, whether they’re on the political or religious left, and the barriers to conversation those prejudices create. We simply cannot rush to judgment about someone based on the color of their hair, the bumper stickers on their car, their political party, or their tattoos and ear awl.
And lest we conceive our current plight is without precedent, we need only remember that the first-century church was birthed in a culture where politics, pagan gods, Stoics, Gnostics, spiritualists, and hedonists cavorted. Raley illustrates this by threading Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well throughout his book, extracting insights from their conversation. It’s a helpful illustration and one that Raley plumbs in detail, and rather effectively.
But perhaps my greatest concern in reading “The Diversity Culture” was how the author would approach the undermining of biblical evangelism that inevitably results from strict postmodernism. Why “create conversations of faith” (as the book’s subtitle states), if all faiths are legit, or at least neutral? And if Christianity is worth defending and/or propagating, on what grounds do we base its precedence?
Such discussions usually divide along two lines: either the way of Christ is compromised to include other faiths, or other faiths are viewed as inferior to the way of Christ. Perhaps this is why the book has taken some heat from postmodern Christians. As one fellow blogger and reviewer said about “The Diversity Culture,”
“It’s a book written for fat conservative Baptists sitting in San Francisco coffee bars trying to convert post-moderns… this is another one of those “us vs. them” how-to books – ‘if you want to save the pomos and the homos, you’ve got to ________’. [Raley] really cares about us, and he’s not a bigot or anything, he just wants us to convert from our immoral and unrighteous ways.”
The question I would ask this reviewer is: “Does Jesus still want to ’save’ anyone? Does Jesus still want to ‘convert’ us to anything? If so, what does that ’saving’ and ‘converting’ involve, and how do followers of Jesus engage in that process?” The last time I checked, the Gospel was still about converting us from our “immoral and unrighteous ways.” But if we become the arbiters of what is “immoral and unrighteous,” then we’re screwed.
The fact that some post-modern Christians have reached the aforementioned conclusions is, in my estimate, a validation of Raley’s position. He writes:
“There is always pressure to redefine the faith so that it fits ungodly prejudices better. For instance, some are experimenting again with the notion that people of other faiths will be saved as long as they are sincere. Some others want to blur biblical standards on sexuality so that we seem less prudish. None of these faux-biblical teachings will lead people to Jesus.
…there will be times to say things that open us to slander and mockery. Jesus calls us to do no less. He was impaled on the cross for exactly such uncompromising stands. (pg. 120)”
Both evangelicals and post-modern Christians are guilty of trying to “redefine the faith so that it fits ungodly prejudices better.” The sooner we recognize the errors on both sides, the closer we are to productive conversations between ourselves and our culture.
If you’re looking for a book concerning the philosophical defense of the Gospel or apologetic approaches, “The Diversity Culture” isn’t it. However, if you’re contemplating how to “create conversations of faith” with your agnostic brother-in-law, transgendered co-worker, bitter ex-Catholic neighbor, or confused teenage daughter, Raley’s book provides a practical, biblical framework for building relationships and engaging in civil, non-judgmental dialog. And as our culture becomes more and more diverse, Christlike listening and engagement will become all the more important.
Review: The Diversity Culture
Oct 12th, 2009
ironman15
The premise of this book is fairly simple: he weaves the narrative of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-26) as an example of how to engage those who are different than yourselves in conversations about Truth. I thought this was one of the real strengths of the book. His writing in these parts has the ability to bring the story to life, and I agree that it is an amazing example of the point he is trying to make.
Raley also sets up two stereotypes and contrasts them: a woman at Cafe Siddhartha (the birth name of the Buddha) and a Baptist at Cafe Siddhartha. This is one area where he lost me. I’ve never been one for stereotypes, and I felt like he lost momentum every time he would reference these two make-believe people throughout the book.
The book does have some interesting and articulate parts, but overall, it failed to fully engage me. I never got lost in a chapter (in a good way). In fact, it often felt like I was pushing through a section just to see what was next. In addition, he did something that I’ve grown to loathe with so many Christian writers today: taking pot-shots at megachurches. For example, he states that “the reality is that the growth of megachurches is the result of many evangelicals making the same choices, adopting a religious lifestyle that matches American consumerism. The responsibility for megachurch superficiality is broadly shared.” It sounds like he is arguing that growth = superficiality. That isn’t Biblical, or accurate. Anyone can make a straw-man church and then tear it down. His description of megachurches hasn’t been what I’ve seen at Central or a handful of local megachurches in Arizona.
Despite this, here are a few quotes that stood out to me and developed his point well:
“We interpret people as stock characters, as members of groups. Jesus interpreted the woman at the well using a story about her as an individual.”
“People wear and carry objects that feed stories about who they are, how they see themselves, and what their agendas are. Sometimes the mixed signals are calculated and even defensive, but in other cases they simply reflect the bearer’s experiences–and evangelicals can have trouble discerning which.”
“…we can see how John pits individuals against their groups. Whether the characters are Jesus’ disciples or his enemies, the crowbar that pries them away from their worldly loyalty is their knowledge of Scripture. The pattern is consistent throughout John’s gospel…”
“We cannot break the power of groupthink by opposing it with more groupthink. We need to restore one of our oldest appeals: Sola scriptura. The signature of biblical Christianity has always been freedom of thought.”
“Once an individual is thinking for himself, he is ready to meet Jesus.”
Oct 12th, 2009
trooperdog
As a book review blogger for two different organizations, I get to review books from time to time on my blog. Today I finished a book entitled, “The Diversity Culture” by Matthew Raley.
The subtitle of this book is “Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between”. There’s a mouthful! But that subtitle grabbed my attention and made me want to read this book. In some respects, the book succeeded in the subtitle but in other ways it didn’t.
The author describes himself as someone who never fits the stereotypes that people could easily lump him into. And that idea is what the first part of the book is all about. Matthew Raley seeks to help us to understand that the ways that we view people and the stereotypes that we tend to lump people together into really don’t fit across the board in our culture anymore. So Raley takes several chapters to describe our current culture. My one complaint with his descriptions is that he tends to paint people into “us” and “them” boxes…people who are Christian and people who are of our current culture. That distinction was very hard to take as he continued through the book.
I think Raley does a great job of explaining the state of our current culture…and at times he gives great explanations as to how Christians can speak into the culture. But the book never really grabbed me and it felt too much like he was trying to give answers that would make Christians happy. I wish he would have spoken more about the art of listening. I really think listening is the best way that anyone can interact with the culture around us.
Overall, I’d give this book 3 out of 5 stars. There were some good parts…but some of it just didn’t speak to where my faith is at in regards to our culture.
Oct 12th, 2009
sheyduck
http://wp.me/p1bpn-qy
I liked the book, then again, I didn’t. I have always thought I come from evangelical roots, by Raley and others are convincing me that I was always a mainline person, with fundamentalist, then evangelical affinities.
Raley’s story, flowing out of his own story, is about “healing relationships as a way f showing Jesus Christ to Contemporary America.” (p. 16) Diversity Culture is set in Café Siddhartha, where each one is several stereotype rolled into one.
Using the story of Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4), Raley makes some interesting and valid points for evangelicals who “have difficulty penetrating this culture’s ways, and seem to feel it was designed to exclude them.”
Raley does a respectable job of trying to draw evangelicals out of their absolute, fact-driven world into the world where everyone else lives – the world of relationships and brokenness and community. Is this relativism? “Is it relativistic,” Raley asks, “to hear someone out, or to participate in discussions that may not resolve neatly?”
My hesitation to recommending the book strongly is about what seems to me to lie beneath the surface. The Diversity Culture reads to me as if Raley is hanging onto the assumptions that the evangelical worldview is the one true and accurate worldview, but that evangelicals ought to loosen their grip on it for the sake of building relationships and thereby bringing others to Christ. This worldview is from the Reformation and its progeny, not from Jesus or the New Testament era. We don’t need another book calling us backward to Calvin, Luther, and Locke.
Overall, it is a good read. At only 166 pages, it is written well enough to be worth the time it takes you to read it. Raley raises good questions, and is, I believe, headed in the right direction.
Oct 15th, 2009
SPalm
I picked up Matthew Raley’s. “The Diversity Culture” with great anticipation. Raley is a pastor in my new neck-of-the-woods, dealing with the same social, cultural and spiritual challenges that I have, and the topic – Christian engagement with others – had lots of promise. Plus, it ‘s been a busy month, and if I were to review a book this month, I wanted it to be short, which “The Diversity Culture” is. The information I received regarding the author, projected him as a political and social conservative and the church is woefully short of these kind of men and woman who are engaged in meaningful dialogue with the irreducible Other – or at least are willing to write about it!
After giving Raley a solid read, I must confess I found his work to be a mixed bag. That’s not to say that “The Diversity Culture” is a poorly written or overflowing with poor ideas. Rather, Raley and I, while sharing a desire for similar outcomes, we come at interaction with the Other in some significantly different ways.
My task here is not to argue with Raley – that would be counterproductive, not to mention out-of-school. Raley has some significantly useful points and perspectives that more Christ-followers would be wise to incorporate. Therefore, I will simple lay out what I consider to be the good, the bad and the ugly and allow you to decide.
The Good
Raley’s best work surrounds his ability to give Christians a language and process for engaging the Other. This, I know, can be discombobulating to some, especially those that view increasing diversity in America as some kind of threat. Describing the stereotypical World War II man, Raley explains that he “knows who he is.” This kind of knowing is often – and I may be reaching here myself – unsettled by cultures and epistemologies that the World War II man doesn’t understand. If that is the case, then Raley is a great place to begin.
What’s more, Raley, gives a step-by-step guide to engagement – the perfect solution for those who don’t quite know what to do. Raley offers scripture, community, and testimony as a way forward. For some this will be a great challenge and Raley gives them glimmers of hope and thoughtful ways to engage. If you know someone who wants to interact with Others, yet is too uncomfortable to do so, then Raley is a good place to start.
What’s more, Raley committed works from a Biblical perspective. He is not attempting to create conversations by distancing himself or the church from the claims of scripture. He is not even advocating that we see the Biblical text in a new way. Rather he is attempting to bridge the divide, giving Christ-followers helpful ways to move the conversation along
The Bad
But what Raley does well is also the Achilles heal of “The Diversity Culture.” Admittedly, most of these critiques involve the first half of the book, which was difficult to get through. First, while reading “The Diversity Culture” I got the distinct sense that the Other is a problem to be dealt with, not a person to be loved. The books aim seems to be this: “How do we get the irreducible Other to think and act like typical American evangelical Christians?” This fact is embedded in the book’s title. The subtle suggestion is that there is a “diversity culture” that we need to learn to reach and teach – as if (1) we are not all a part, in some degree, of the same culture and (2) that other cultures out to acquiesce to “our” culture.
Raley’s bias is exposed in his exegesis of the Samaritan woman, whom he constructs as the necessary Other to be engaged. Looking at Jesus’ interaction with the woman, Raley offers their interaction with one another as a model for the church. Here’s the problem with that model: (1) Within this interaction, Jesus is socially and politically the superior. This necessarily effects the engagement. We must ask whether or not this kind of engagement is a proper equivalent. Do we want to use an image of superiority when engaging the other? Perhaps one of Jesus’ encounters with a social equal might be better.
As Raley writes, you get hints of this superiority in his descriptions of others, such as a New York Times reader or the lady at Café Siddhartha. Raley characterizations may come off to some as flippant stereotypes that may make some readers wonder whether or not he took the irreducible Other seriously as a person. Along with this, Raley offers a popular exegesis of the Samaritan woman that simply is extra-textual. Like many before him, Raley posits that the woman was divorced by her five previous husbands, which may be true but is not actually in the text. How might the reader engage the Samaritan woman if through the devastating blows which life sometimes deals, they discover that she is a five-time widow? Sounds extreme? Maybe. But it is no more or less explicit in the text than a five-time divorcee. Oddly, I happen to know a woman who is a three-time widow. Given the disparity in ages, which occurred in the marriages of antiquity, it’s not entirely far-fetched. Perhaps Jesus’ interaction with the woman is less concerned about sin and more with compassion – but now I’m rambling. At root, however, for Raley the Other seems to be less a person and more the object of a ministry designed less to convert from darkness to light and more to assimilate. But, (and I mean this sincerely) I may be woefully misreading him.
Second, because Raley switches back-and-forth between an imagined scene in a café, his own insights and Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, his writing style seems herky-jerky, at times. Though not a major problem, there are points in which his argument is lost in transition.
It should be noted that Raley’s instincts get better as the book wears on, but it’s hard to give him an audience for that long. As a pastor desirous of conveying the message of the gospel, I respect Raley, and his desire to engage the Other in meaningful way. For that we can all be thankful.
Oct 15th, 2009
Ron Cole
The Diversity Culture, at first glance, glossy cover filled with visual screen shots of todays culture. A diverse culture magnified, frozen to still life. The back, the bait to lure into the book.
“ A new culture has emerged. It preaches openness, moral flexibility, and social diversity…and it’s making evangelicals feel uncomfortable. Threatened. Excluded. Writing with both a Christian worldview and an open mind, author Matthew Raley tackles the social tensions between evangelicals and the diversity culture with honesty and understanding.
Analyzing contemporary media, historical sources, and scripture, The Diversity Culture looks at the cultural barriers of society and how they can be breached, so readers can understand…and approach…cosmopolitan peers on their own terms. Incisive and indispensable, this book challenges believers to cross socioeconomic, ethical, and ideological dividing lines to heal human relationships in the name of Christ.
If you’ve been living in the Christian bubble, and accidently walked outside you could say a new culture as emerged. The reality is this “ culture” has been evolving for years. It hasn’t been like throwing a light switch, or crossing a threshold from light into darkness. As technology has changed, science has changed, theology has changed, our understanding and the conversation has changed. The sad reality most churches have not engaged in the conversation. I think Matthew Raley addresses this reality in his book. That in our defending of the faith, we have struggled for certitude and have forgotten the real spiritual life of the faith. In the void, in the lack of understanding, how do we engage?
Matthew Raley attempts to bridge this void by drawing parallels of a fictitious meeting a woman of the diversity culture, and a conservative Baptist man in Cafe’ Siddhartha. At the same time throw a long line and pull the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.
I think for me, one of the strengths of the book was in helping the average reader understand the tension of what the diversity culture. He brought to the surface a lot of what makes up the diversity culture, and brought in what he calls Street Postmodernism. I found it be over simplified, in that he kept trying to paint an image of the diversity culture person with a broad brush stroke almost a stereotype. I think for anyone trying to grasp a better understanding of postmodernism there is certainly better books. That’s another thing that I found confusing, is it about the diversity culture or postmodernism, and what’s the difference. But, then again, if your just hanging out with Christians, not talking to anyone between your house in church, this book will help you understand what’s surrounding you.
Part two of the book tackles the issue of formulating a message, with chapters on The Power of Scripture; The Power of Community; and the Power of Testimony. I found this section a little tiring, looking at the message of the diversity culture and then running from the Cafe’ to the well to look at the message of the Samaritan woman’s culture. Although there is similarities, I found Matthew Raley reaching to read something into a culture that may not have been there. 2000+ years is long ways to drag culture and context from one world into another.
He then looks at the community of the woman in Cafe’ Siddhartha comparing it to the Samaritan woman at the well. He tries to reveal the community that has formed the identity of each. Somehow if we can understand how these communities shape the individual, we can reveal the lies that have entrapped them. In this revelation, we ( the Baptist ) in the Cafe can offer an alternative community just as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman at the well.
From there it is like a simple math equation like A+B=C; the message of scripture countering the message of the diversity culture, the community that Jesus offers countering the myth of identity that the diversity culture offers, add our personal testimony that affirms both.
The last part of the book could be summarized as application of the above. Be a heretic, which is someone who thinks outside the square box. Matthew Raley reduces the box of four sides, to a triangle with three sides; don’t be certain, don’t be a hero, don’t be a critic. It comes down to a heretic being all those things without being obvious. Next is the mode of attack. There is the frontal attack which he describes at the “ideological mode“, characterized by attack, defense and spin. Then there is the “ relational mode”; a discussion characterized by trust, openness and often risk. And it culminates in what he calls “ Answer the Question.” Our answers must be focused, too often we answer to what we perceive the agendas are. Also our answers must be focused. Our answers don’t merely respond to the persons issue but to our end goal.
This book is not all bad. It helps us understand the culture in which most churches are surrounded. To engage culture, we need to understand culture. But individuals are more complex. I’m still put off by the “us” verses “them” mentality, as if the the diversity culture is all darkness and the Christianity culture being all light. I almost shut the book for good when he dare to wander in the issue of human sexuality, call homosexuality a lifestyle choice. I think this book would have far more credibility if it were not a work of fiction. How about a story of a real Chrsitian that struck up a conversation with someone in a Cafe’ that led to a real friendship over period of years. A story about real transformation in the life of both people. So despite the glimpses into what the diversity culture and postmodernism is, it’s just more of the same old thing. It’s a myopic vision of what salvation, redemption and the gospel are all about. In the postmodern world it is larger than saving souls, in God’s world it’s much bigger than saving souls.
Oct 17th, 2009
tghali
Who I Think the Book is For: A thoughtful, very conservative evangelical whose looking for a change from being inspired by Max Lucado, angered by Bill O’Reilly and has already read all the Ravi Zacharias, John Piper and Chuck Colson one can handle. If that’s been your diet of books lately, than I suspect that you will appreciate this offering from Matthew Raley. Honestly, I think this book is for my parents. Even further for any boomer age parents who have felt they have lost their son/daughter to the “relativism and humanism” taught in the university, this book would help in understanding where their children are/were coming from.
Who I Don’t Think this Book is For: Me. While I enjoyed reading it, it didn’t alter or challenge me in any dramatic or profound way. And that’s ok. I don’t think Raley had postmodern seminarians like me in mind when he was writing it. I think Doug Pagiit’s A Christianity Worth Believing would be more helpful for the postmodern believer or skeptic. That said, it probably did help me in trying to communicate more effectively to the Boomer generation. Like Raley, I am a pastor in a Evangelical Free Church and I see myself as a mediator,
What Raley Does Well: 1. I think he offers excellent caricatures of those outside the Christian faith. There’s a couple but the main one focuses on “The woman at Cafe Siddhartha” which is his coffee shop equivalent of the well. She really takes life in chapter four or at least that’s when I connected with her. She’s an intelligent, culturally savy woman who has given up on the basic faith she was raised with.2. I like the whole “Cafe Siddartha” theme. As he explains in the beginning, “Siddartha is the birth name o f the Buddha which translates to “One who has found meaning”. Among other things, he explains that this is the place of understanding the diversity culture. 3. I liked how he continued to weave through Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman as an excellent approach of creating conversation outside of our walls. 4. I liked how he criticized the lame approach of Teen Mania. Although it was too polite, a thoughtful Boomer will nod in agreement.
What I Would Have Liked to See More of: 1. I think i wanted to feel more of the plurality of what was contained in the subtitle of the “Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies…” 2. He has a chapter called, “Be a Heretic” (Ch.
and in truth, I was looking for more boldness (or at least one heresy). It seemed that it should have been called its theme which was “Don’t Be a Hero”.
Concluding Thoughts: Overall, I liked The Diversity Culture. It’s a well written book with excellent themes weaving throughout. I think it’s strength is in opening the mind of a Boomer in helping him/her understand the mentality of those outside the Christian faith. We in the church like to say that non-believers are “lost in their sin” and “have hardened their hearts to the Holy Spirit” and dismiss them. I think Raley will help people see why some non-Christians like being non-Christians and how one can begin a similar conversation as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman at the well at our respective wells and cafes in life.
Oct 20th, 2009
Neal Taylor
Matthew Raley’s The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between (Kregel Publications, 2009) certainly has a captivating title, and I was excited to receive and start reading the latest book from Viralbloggers. I had not heard of Matthew Raley nor The Diversity Culture previously, so it was the title, with all it’s imagery that lead me to read this interesting, but rather overly complicated book.
Sadly, Raley doesn’t specifically cover the folk from the title, rather lumping them altogether as The Diversity Culture. He then elegantly deconstructs the USAmerican Evangelical culture’s bigotry and stereotyping of this Diversity Culture, calling the reader back to a (radical?) Jesus like approach. He does this through exploring Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.
While The Diversity Culture was an easy read, with some wonderful imagery of the characters at the Cafe Siddhartha, I was left questioning the need to label people and began to appreciate the exploration of the Samaritan woman’s conversation with Jesus, where, whether intentional or not, it became evident that Jesus certainly didn’t need to categorize folk. This is not to say that Raley’s The Diversity Culture, is a poor book! Far from it! It is well constructed and would benefit many in the pews in mainstream legacy church in USAmerica, or for that matter, Australia too!
Where I am left questioning the need to read such a book, is where my experiences differ from Raley. Where Raley is a USAmerican, I am Australian, where Raley is a Pastor, I am not. But that is not where it started to become evident that this book wasn’t written for me. I realised after some time that my own experiences and life had already lead my through the cafe and out the otherside, where, with my life and work with the homeless and those suffering on the edges of society here in Australia, conversations with the Samaritan woman occur almost daily.
I would recommend Matthew Raley’s The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between (Kregel Publications, 2009) to those in the pews of USAmerican evangelical churches, but only if they were terrified about stepping out the doors of the church buildings and their circle of Christian culture and engaging with their neighbours. But, I would I would suggest reading along the way to greeting their homosexual, mixed relations, Hindu neighbours!
Oct 21st, 2009
UMJeremy
http://blog.hackingchristianity.net/2009/11/diversity-culture-review.html
It is unfortunate when I pick up a book that looks interesting and realize it is totally not written with me in mind. The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley is that kind of book which is written to evangelicals who find themselves increasingly feeling isolated and incommunicable to the diversity of contemporary society. Given that (a) I do not identify with evangelical culture, and (b) I have many avenues into contemporary society, then this was not the book written for me.
However, it was a book written ABOUT me, in a sense. From the words of the back cover: a new culture of “spiritual openness, moral flexibility, and social diversity” is what the author writes about. Though I am Christian, I am clearly immersed in that kind of culture and as such I must contend with some of the claims in the book of which I disagree with. I decide on a daily basis what eternal “tenets” of Christianity I am gonna bend or seek to integrate better in my ever-changing relationship with the culture around me. Raley helps me feel “examined” in a helpful way in three movements he makes in the book.
First, Raley talks about the practical way that contemporary society tries to navigate cultural differences. Raley identifies this as “street postmodernism” where there’s no rhyme or reason to people’s beliefs: they just follow what gives them meaning and keeps them from getting hurt. This was a helpful analysis of the cafeteria-style culture that Christians are called to be relevant to. Further, Raley calls out evangelicals who call this culture simply “relativism” ie. people who assert there is no Truth. In actuality, Raley states that they know there is a truth, there is right and wrong, but they don’t have a method to integrate eternal Christian truths into lifestyles full of change and rapid escalation. Again, I don’t identify as evangelical, but this was a breath of fresh air that Raley “got” a key understanding of this culture.
Second, Raley talks about crucibles, or understanding that people have negative experiences in which they are formed into the people they are today with strong understandings of some truth. This truth is not always positive about Christianity! The evangelical’s typical response has been either reject-correct (reject the conclusions they found) or accept-affirm (accept the conclusions and agree with them). Raley seeks a third path which seems to be compassionate engagement which both affirms truth but challenges assumption from a position of weakness. A power-narrative this isn’t. I found Raley’s compassionate response and affirmation of people’s crucibles to be an interesting illustration of how typical evangelical engagement of culture is off-base but not fatally flawed.
Finally, Raley shares a prejudice with me (well, his may be simply good analytics while mine is clearly a prejudice) against mega-churches. He helpfully articulates why mega-churches are successful: they offer everything to everyone via market segmentation. In my town, if you are young working class you probably attend X church, if you are older upper class you attend Y church, etc. Demographics seek out similar demographics, perhaps. But mega-churches are able to offer young adult ministries, seeker services, elder outreach, all the various “storefronts” that make people feel a part of the church, even though it is huge.
Raley’s critique, however, is that such “variety of demographic storefronts” feeds the personal autonomy more than collective discipleship. If you can choose the inputs and the segment of the church life that you want to participate in, then you don’t have to stretch as a person. As Raley says, “the body of Christ has become a customizeable package offered by an industry.” As I write often on this blog, the echo-chamber is present in mega-churches simply because of the choice of the worshippers to only attend and pay attention to what is relevant to them and ignore the rest. It’s a helpful critique from the “inside” that I appreciated.
In short, if you are evangelical, The Diversity Culture would be a good read. If you are a non-evangelical-identified pastor, it is an interesting read. If you are part of the cafeteria culture…then you might not get much out of the book but it could help with gentle correction of wayward evangelicals who seek you out in less-than-helpful fashion that Raley critiques as well.
Thoughts?
Nov 10th, 2009
spiritofburning
When I encounter those who profess multiple paths to God or enlightenment I find myself crying out in strident tones John 14:6. Now there are some who feel I should take a softer approach, seeing these misguided souls as individuals who I can relate to before lambasting them with scriptural quotes.
Though Raley’s language seems to target a distinct group of believers termed `evangelicals’, anyone with a heart for reaching the lost should consider investigating it. It would seem that the evangelicals Raley refers to are really any Christian holding to an orthodox understanding of salvation and a desire to reach out into a dying world for Jesus. With post-modernity sweeping across all of Western culture and Christians finding themselves increasingly alone in their worldview, this title is incredibly timely and relevant for believers.
I greatly enjoyed The Diversity Culture and fairly blew through it. I’m keeping it up on my shelf for another read through because as of yet I’ve been unable to move from my ideological battle position to a relational stance of building bridges of friendship and understanding. I can catch a glimmer of what he’s driving at, hear a faint echo in my heart, but for now I’m still counting on John 14:6. Keep growing a heart of compassion in me Lord, keep growing it.
Nov 18th, 2009
godgrown
Original post: here
Stop for just a moment and think. Clear your mind and take a breath. Consider your worldview – your perspectives, points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs…the very lens through which you see your world. Now, think carefully – who is the person that represents the most complete opposite end of the spectrum? Generally, humans reserve trust and friendship with people they believe are most like them – and tend to demonize and stereotype those most different from them.
For many in America today, conservative Christians and the liberal secularists are on opposite ends of the spectrum. One tends to hang out on Sunday mornings, the other on Saturday nights. One votes for the Democrat, the other votes for the Republican. The worst evil for one is social deviance, whereas the other shuns bigotry. One is urban, one is suburban. One wears suits, the other has dreadlocks. One is PC one is Mac. You get the picture.
Both live in worlds in which the other has no place. Both exist in tight bubbles that exclude others. In these secluded tribes, they can lob ideological grenades at other tribes and receive comfort from their peers. All the while the chasm between people and Truth grows wider.
I had never heard of Matthew Raley when I picked up The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between. He speaks to this reality of ideological tribalism with humility and truth. He draws on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well, John 4:1-26, as a prime example of how Jesus engaged the “other” not as a propped-up caricature, but as a unique individual. Samaritans and Jews distrusted each other politically, religiously, and even the other tribe’s very right to exist. Sounds familiar even today, doesn’t it?
Jesus sat down next to the well, and began to cross barriers – claiming that mistakes had been made in both Jewish and Samaritan tribes in the identity of the other – both groups had inherited from their tribesmen lies about the other group. When she showed signs that she was willing to take people (and life) case by case (rather than broad brushing stereotypes) he was able to work with her – and introduce her to the Living Water.
But herein lies the rub – do people make life-changing decisions about faith and worldview as a group, or as individuals? Raley says its about “crowbar-ing people away from their groupthink” (whether Christian or secular or whatever) and asking them to think critically about what they personally believe to be true. It is at this point that I think I differ from Raley.
I agree that to really help someone think critically about an issue, sometimes you have to remove their normal filters and lenses their culture gives them and let them try their best to think for themselves. Other times there’s just not enough will-power in the person to do that, and if done properly, “salvation can come to the whole household,” as it does all over Acts. Sometimes people come to Christ as individuals, extricated from their culture (Ethiopian eunuch, Samaritan woman at the well), and sometimes its through their community (Philippian jailer’s family, Cornelius’ household, etc.).
He admits that most people in the “Diversity Culture” as he coins it, grow up with a “street postmodernism” – and are not really sure why they hold such pluralistic views – they know perfectly well that right and wrong exist, but “what they don’t necessarily know is how to integrate unchanging principles into lives that are full of change.” (Raley, 50) Christians too believe things without knowing exactly why – and they still are distrustful of those with different views. What ends up happening is a world full of people who hate each other for reasons they can’t explain. Back to stereotypes.
Remember that archetypal person who you distrust the most, and put an actual face on them – someone you know at work, etc. Find their uniqueness – something that shatters the stereotype you have of them. Maybe its a hipster who listens to Kenny-G, or a liberal who secretly watches reruns of Glenn Beck. You might just find yourself like the Samaritan woman at the well did, face to face with a the most important relationship of your life that you never saw coming.
Dec 12th, 2009
pstrben
http://wanderingwithben.blogspot.com
by Ben Seaman
What a great book! I recommend this book for anyone who might want to figure out how to talk with people who are “different” from them but primarily for those who call themselves Christians and want to have a positive – God-focused influence on those outside their Christian circles.
The author ties Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman with an encounter the “average” church-going person might have in a “post-modern” cafe.
What an excellent job of creating a story where Biblical principles can come to bear on how we interact with each other outside of the standard church event.
When people have asked me how to talk about Jesus to their friends and co-workers, I’ve shared methods that I’ve learned over the years but, until recently, rarely did I suggest that they listen to their friend’s story before bringing the Gospel to bear on their need.
The author demonstrates how Jesus heard beyond the culture the Samaritan woman exhibited and was able to meet her where she really needed Him. He then builds principles that we can utilize today if we really care for those who are without Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
The simple idea is that everyone has a story, everyone has a need, and everyone has a mask. How then do we hear, meet needs, and share Jesus? It’s up to us (Christ followers) to learn how to take steps to be given an ear to share the truth found in God’s Word. We must get outside our Christian bubbles and meet people on their level and be able to hear their stories and questions so that we can give direct and focused answers to their earnest questions.
The best chapter in this book (in my opinion) is chapter nine (9). This chapter was the “ah-ha – I get it” chapter for me. The author talks about two styles of conversation- ideological and relational. Ideological involves a debate-style attack where the opponents try to get points for making better arguments. This style is characterized by attack, defense, and spin (page 122). The relational style is characterized by trust, openness and risk (page 123) and the risk is often taken first by the one opening up the conversation but is reciprocated by the one answering or entering into the conversation.
Ideological conversation most often says: I don’t care about you – I just want to make my point. Relational conversation, on the other hand says: I care about you – my point is less than the health and authenticity of our relationship – you matter to me.
Get this book (or borrow mine) and let’s talk.
Jan 26th, 2010
for “The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley”
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