Should Christians Impose Their Values on Others?

One time I had a colleague, an anthropology professor at the University of Colorado reproach Christianity for the practice of what she called cultural imperialism. That is, the imposition of Christian values on non-Christian cultures. I have discussed this many times with my students many of whom also had the same objection. In this video I want to answer that criticism of the Christian faith.

Keep in mind, professors who despise Christianity do not oppose forcing others to change their culture. They just oppose Christians doing it. I said to this anthropology prof, “I am a Protestant Evangelical Christian. Two cultural values that are very important to us are special creation of Adam and Eve and marital chastity. In your anthropology classes do you protect Evangelical students and respect their culture or do you attack their values?” She said, what people always say in this situation. “That’s different.” Of course it is. The difference is, she feels she has the right to attack my culture but I do not have the right to promote mine. This kind of hypocrisy is routine.

One time a student at lunch said she appreciated the orphanage work I did in Cambodia but didn’t like for me to try to convert the children to Christianity. I didn’t bother telling her that my religion was the reason I was in Asia in the first place. I said to her, “In almost every conversation we have about the environment you try to persuade me to recycle and take steps to save the planet. Aren’t you trying to impose your views on me?” She said, you guessed it, “that’s different.” She had the right to try to persuade me of the truth of her views but, according to her, I did not possess that right.

Let me give you some examples of Christians imposing their religion on culture and you be the judge of whether or not Christians should do this.

I used to ask my students this question: What would you think of a Baptist missionary who goes to colonial India and persuades the British to ban an ancient Hindu religious ritual. The students unanimously condemned the missionary. Then someone would inevitably ask, What’s the ritual? I said, “It was the practice of encouraging or requiring a widow to cast herself on her husband’s burning funeral pyre.” Then a debate would ensue with a few defending the right of Indians to do this, but most students—all of the women—thought that in this particular case imposing Christian values on another culture was acceptable.

Or how about the trafficking of children for prostitution and slavery? Numerous organizations fight this all over the world with the near unanimous support of Western people and governments. Historically cultures have had no problem with trafficking. I spoke with a missionary in Thailand who had gone to that country to start an orphanage and rescue children. She was in the downtown area of her city when some businessmen asked her what she was doing in Thailand. She said she was rescuing children from sex trafficking. They said, “Isn’t that what they’re for?” 

Christians have always imposed their view of women, sex, and marriage on culture. Historically, women have at best been treated as second-class citizens, and at worst as disposable property. Then Christianity changed all this by insisting that women were created in the image of God and of infinite worth and value. We imposed our view of women first on the Roman Empire, then on the European barbarian tribes, and finally everywhere Christianity has been established. The equality of women is a cultural value universally accepted in the West and even our secular governments and citizens export that value to other countries without hesitation. I regularly said in class to my female students: “You live the best lives any women have ever lived; and it’s because Jesus Christ walked the earth.”

In his brilliant book, Dominion, Tom Holland says the “Me-too” movement was built on a solidly Christian assumption. Holland argues that in Christian culture—unlike any other culture in the history of the world--men’s sexual appetites were to be restrained. He argues that although feminists repudiated the Christian faith, their arguments for male restraint were from the very “womb of Christianity” itself. Holland concludes: ““Like dust particles so fine as to be invisible to the naked eye [Christian morals and presumptions] were breathed in equally by everyone: believers, atheists, and those who never paused to so much as think about religion.”  The women I spoke of before who opposed Christians imposing their culture on others, don’t mind a bit that we have imposed the value and worth of women on all people.

We have to mention the abolition of slavery; another example of imposing Christian values on civilization. The great Princeton scholar, Bernard Lewis, said that, yes, like every other civilization, Christian civilization had condoned slavery. What made Christianity unique was its decision to abolish it.

Or take expositio—the practice in ancient Greece and Rome of exposing unwanted infants to the elements, leaving them to die. Again, let me cite Holland: “Across the Roman world, “babies abandoned by their parents was a common sight.”[1] Up to this time virtually everyone was accepting of parents exposing their unwanted children. That is, until Christian people arrived on the scene. Many were like Macrina, a Christian woman who rescued abandoned girls and took them home to raise as her own.” Today expositio is illegal in the West and everywhere else. My guess is everyone watching this video is okay with Christians imposing that cultural value.

Let me give one last example. Most of you have seen the remarkable film, Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe. It portrays the ancient gladiatorial contest in all its brutality. Men murdering each other for the amusement of a crowd. Christians went to war against this popular form of entertainment and were finally successful in getting it banned. The last gladiatorial contest occurred in about 400 A.D.

In each of these cases our critics agree with us in our imposition of Christian religious values on culture. They agree that it’s a good thing. They are right. It’s a good thing. Biblical values lived out improve culture in every way.

Christianity is the most powerful cultural force that has ever existed. We are the bearers of God’s truth for mankind. He obligates us to make life better for all people by cultivating Christian values in every culture. We will continue to do so until Christ comes. And the people who hate us for doing it will live better lives for it.

Thank you for watching. May our God bless you this day in a mighty way.

More Resources:

The Amazon link for Tom Holland’s great book: https://www.amazon.com/Dominion-Christian-Revolution-Remade-World/dp/1541675592/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1637273447&sr=8-1

Hollands book is a bit daunting—it’s over 600 pages. I have written a 22-page summary of it and it can be found on my website’s blog: https://www.the401stprophet.com/a-synopsis-of-dominion-by-tom-holland

In my book, Seven Ideas that Changed the World, I deal with these ideas at length: https://www.amazon.com/Ideas-That-Changed-World-civilizations-ebook/dp/B085MM79ZB/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=seven+ideas+that+changed+the+world&qid=1584653313&sr=8-1

[1] P.180