Brother Jed

With Brother Jed coming to our campus I thought it would be appropriate to post about him and the cultures of Christians here at Texas A&M. For those of you who don’t know, Brother Jed is a preacher who travels across the country visiting college campus’s to preach. However, his method of preaching is one of condemning people and not about the true love of Jesus Christ. The arrival of Brother Jed brings out many people to academic plaza (where he preaches). The majority of people there are atheists mocking Brother Jed, Christians trying to love people that might be angry or confused at what Brother Jed is saying, and random students passing by in between classes. A lot of what Brother Jed says causes controversies for Christians and really challenges them to assess what they believe. The predominant culture of Christians here at A&M is rather comfortable. People would say that the majority of students at A&M are Christian and it is easy for Christians to make friends and get through college. Brother Jed really challenges the average Christian and tests their faith. Are Christians going to step out and defend their faith? Are they going to become uncomfortable for the very faith that they are defined by? Or are they going to sit back in their comfortable culture? This Christian culture at A&M is a blessing, but can also be detrimental to one’s faith. It can allow Christians to think everyone loves Jesus and causes Christians to be stagnant in their faith. Christians here at A&M should be continually stepping out in their faith and redefine the “culture of a Christian.” That is what I would love to see. True revival will happen when all the Christians here at A&M completely fall in love with Jesus and act like His death on the cross actually means something. We don’t need a religious culture, we need people who love Jesus and that is all that matters to them.

My personal definition of culture

Culture can be a very broad topic and can have multiple definitions. I believe that culture is your way of life. It is what you do and how you do it, even down to the smallest details. Nothing should be left out when thinking about your culture or the type of culture you live in. I also believe that culture is both concrete and abstract. It is concrete because our cars, housing, clothes, food, buildings, and etc. are all part of our culture and can be touched. Parts of our culture that can't be touched (abstract) are ideas, values, beliefs, morals, and desires. Our ideas, values, beliefs, morals, and desires are all extremely important to a culture even if you can't necessarily see them or feel them (sometimes you can). Language is also an abstract part of culture. A group's language is extremely important to them. 

 A definition of culture that I found issue with is the one that stated "Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world." Although I have heard and seen lots of great things in my life, I personally don't believe that I know or have heard the BEST there is. Therefore, does that mean that I don't have culture? To me, this definition is very vague and not accurate. There is a lot more to culture than knowing the best that has been and thought in the world. Also, who decides what "best" is? One person can think that one way is the best and another can think another way is best. Are we wrong if we are different? Who knows? It's up to you to decide.