THE HYPHENATED-CULTURE

I Was Just Thinking About - - - 

Our culture appears to be torn between two great divides. There is an overwhelming influence of the secular progressives who are rented to government control and redistribution versus the conservative libertarians who want less government intrusion in the affairs of state and citizen’s lives. The moderates who occupy the middle begin to be seen as those who will either absent themselves from taking any stand that would prove to be controversial and are willing to be part of an increasing number who are willing to subscribe to being all things to all people.

The hyphenated worldview is not new. More than one hundred years ago, there was a pronounced marginalization as people were identified with a hyphenated group. Currently it is the hyphenated world of African-American; Hispanic-American; LBGT- American, etc. The Wikipedia has this interesting glimpse of attitudes and designations in the early 1900s: “In the United States the term hyphenated-American is an epithet commonly used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country. It was most commonly used to disparage German-Americans or Irish-Americans (Catholics) who called for United States neutrality in World War I.  Former President Theodore Roosevelt was an outspoken anti-hyphenate and Woodrow Wilson followed suit. The term ‘Hyphenated-American’ was published by 1889, and was common as a derogatory term by 1904. During World War I the issue arose of the primary political loyalty of ethnic groups with close ties to Europe, especially German-Americans and also Irish-Americans. President Theodore Roosevelt in speaking to the largely Irish Catholic Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on Columbus Day 1915, asserted that: There is no room in this country for hyphenated-Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated-Americans, I do not refer to naturalized-Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized-Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated-American is not an American at all…The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of it continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic…There is no such thing as a hyphenated-American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else. President Woodrow Wilson regarded ‘hyphenated Americans’ with suspicion, saying: Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.”

It’s regrettable that our nation today tends to hyphenate most of the time. Our leaders and pundits speak of all groups with a hyphenated identification. Sadly, the church follows along with this pattern and has brought about the hyphenated-church ranging from theological differences and organizational control. It would be almost impossible to persuade some religious groups of the intent of Galatians 3:26-29 (ESV), “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” The Baptists would latch onto the word “Baptized” as being water baptism rather than it being identified with Christ (dying to self and living unto God). The Presbyterians would latch onto “Abraham’s offspring (seed) and maintain that necessitates covenant theology, etc. Colossians 3:10-11 (NLT) reminds us all to: “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us (who believe in Him alone for salvation).” Consider these things with me!