I recently heard some Christians point out that many of the moral laws of the old testament are actually variables dependent on cultural standards. They’re not fixed like moral principles. Some of these include what we eat, what we wear, and what we say. They pointed out that many of the restrictions only make sense during a particular time and particular place. For example Paul wrote to the Corinthians that a woman should not cut her hair (1 Corinthians 11:6). There are various dietary commands found in Leviticus (Leviticus 19:19). And there are warnings against calling your brother “raca” (Matthew 5:22). These kinds of rules change as cultural norms change since they are in fact applications of more basic moral principles (like concern yourself with your health, dress appropriately, and don’t use language abusively). What it means to be healthy changes as human knowledge of nutrition and the body develops. What it means to dress appropriately changes depending on cultural standards. And what it means to not use abusive language changes as linguistic expressions change and between groups of people.
There are plenty of versus that articulate the more basic principle that these commands attempt to apply. Ephesians 4:29 says to use language that is “good for building up” and “as fits the occasion”. Corinthians 6:20 says to honor God with our bodies. Timothy 2:9 says to dress modestly. These are the articulation of some of the more basic principles being applied in the other versus.
What I found interesting is how easily it was to translate these scriptures into the modern evangelical culture, but how difficult it was to translate it out of the modern evangelical culture. If I’m eating dinner with people from the modern evangelical culture, and I say, “goddamn this lasagna is amazing”, they might be horrified. But if I’m eating dinner with people next door, and I say, “goddamn this lasagna is amazing”, someone might respond, “well let me give you the recipe!” What ends up being appropriate is a variable dependent on the time and place it is being said. The moral principle is independent of culture, but how it is applied is going to depend very much on it. Popular Christianity has trouble seeing the appropriateness of the alternative situation.
We can easily come up with some other examples. Phrases like, “you son of a bitch” is not abusive if my buddy just took a bite out of my sandwich, while quite abusive if he just stole my girlfriend. The meaning of the phrase changed from un-abusive to abusive between those two situations because only in the latter situation am I actually tearing him down. In the former we are just having fun.
My wife can let her hair down in public because in this day-and-age, letting your hair down does not signal to others that she’s a prostitute. Christian culture has moved with mainstream from the taboo of a woman showing her ankles. Popular Christianity gets that because we’re translating into their current culture. However, places where women stride topless on beaches Christians is still oftentimes seen as wrong by many Christians. The length a skirt can be before it communicates something risqué is no doubt shorter in mainstream culture than it is in evangelical culture.
