Christ and Culture in Columbus

What hath Columbus to do with Jerusalem?

Glenn Wishnew | Est. 9 minutes

I.

Today, my wife Florin and I will watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play the Michigan Wolverines in a football game at Ohio Stadium (nicknamed “The Horeshoe”). Exactly 20 minutes before kickoff, every Buckeye fan will rise from their stadium seat and clap to the rhythm of the Marching Band’s percussion. In a tradition dating back to 1936, the formally named “Best Damn Band In The Land” will begin forming a cursive “OHIO” facing the South stands as they play “Drive Down The Field.” In the waning moments of the song, a senior sousaphone player will high step their way to “dot the i” as the stadium roars.

An Inverted Script Ohio

Then the Michigan team will take the field and we will boo and jeer and wish them bad luck  extend a warm welcome. 

Today’s the last home game for Ohio State this season so the 22 seniors – from the all-Americans to the scout team – will be formally introduced by the stadium speaker. And we will cheer them on, each one, as they run onto the field and hug Coach Ryan Day, and then deliver flowers to their mothers, who will most definitely be crying. (I’ve attended 6 straight Senior Days, watched hundreds of players do this and have yet to witness one mom remain dry-eyed.)

After the national anthem and coin toss, “Seven Nation Army” will begin playing on the stadium speakers and reverberations of “Ohhhhhh-ohh-ohh-ohh-Ohhhhhhh” will get louder and louder as the kicker places the ball on the tee.

And the game will begin.

II.

Culture is not merely a set of ideas, a ‘worldview’ which Christians should dissect and differentiate from their own. Culture's tentacles stretch farther and wider than explicit premises and conclusions.

First, culture shapes your perception of time. When I walk into Ohio Stadium, I have exited the world determined by hours and minutes and entered a world divided by quarters. Consider how strange it would be if I said that the touchdown occurred at “1:35” instead of “midway through the third quarter.” The game experience is structured by rituals: the Band’s pregame entrance, the team’s entrance, the band’s halftime show, the crowd singing “Hang On Sloopy” after the third quarter, and the benediction where we join hands and sing Ohio State’s Alma Mater “Carmen Ohio” after the game. Ohio State football fans are the most liturgical among us, religious or otherwise.

Culture also supplies language and stories, a treasury of shared references. One buckeye fan says “OH!” Another one responds “IO!” It works. Assuming all goes well Saturday, I will say things like “Look at that open field tackle, Caleb Downs reads the game better than any other player in the country” or “Chip Kelly schemed it up with that misdirection playcall *chef’s kiss*” or “Jeremiah Smith just Mossed that dude!” My British Father-in-Law, Michael, would have no idea what I’m talking about, and neither would most people in the English-speaking world today. But everyone around me in the Horeshoe will know. That’s the power of Ohio State’s culture.

Thirdly, cultures build things and then those things build culture. When it was originally constructed in 1922, Ohio Stadium could host 62,000 fans. At the time, it was the largest poured concrete structure in the world. Many university officials feared that the stadium would never be filled to capacity. Today, it is the biggest event space in the state of Ohio, boasting a maximum capacity of over 109,000 fans.

Size brings significance. An alien dropped into the 18th century United States would see Churches, the most imposing buildings in Colonial America at the time, and the alien would wonder “what happens there?” If that same alien was dropped into Columbus today, they would wonder what happens inside our modern cathedrals.

Cultures are formed around behaviors and relationships. When fans walk into the Horeshoe, we’re in uniform. Our clothes signal that this world isn’t defined by politics, faith, or class. No one commands us to high-five after touchdowns or yell on third downs but we do it anyway, further evidence that culture’s power is revealed by its unspoken effects.

Ohio State fans are not an aggregation of individuals, but one united “Buckeye Nation,” as we affectionately call ourselves.

A story: Eight years ago, Ohio State running back Curtis Samuel scored the game-winning touchdown against Michigan in a hard-fought overtime game. In the moments after he reached the endzone, the woman cheering beside me, a forty-something mother of 4, turned and we shared a second of eye contact. She extended her arms for a hug and I reciprocated. She then lifted me off the ground.

After she put me down, I looked at her – stunned. She said “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I was just so excited!” I smiled and said “Me too.”

And then we walked out, she with her kids, me with my dad.

III.

As our foray into Ohio State football shows, Culture is powerful. How do we respond to it? According to Andy Crouch’s typology, Christians can relate to culture in 5 different ways: condemn, critique, copy, consume, or create. 

Condemnation involves complete negation. Christians condemn any worship of false gods, for example. Early Christians didn’t attend the gladiatorial games because the combatants were members of a sinful economic structure (slavery), the games began by sacrificing to Roman gods and the entertainment consisted of brutal violence toward image-bearers — all big no-nos. The games were not merely corrupt, but corrupting to all those who participated; therefore, Christians condemned them.

Critique is different: Christians may engage the object but viewer discretion is advised. The women in my life – my wife Florin, my mother Kathy and my sister Katie – will watch Hallmark movies in the upcoming weeks while they wrap presents, an annual tradition. That’s wonderful, but they shouldn’t consume uncritically. Lord knows I’m not going to read their needs and fulfill their desires like the dreamy men in those movies. Hallmark Guys know exactly what their partner wants without being told, which has as much resemblance to reality as the Bears making the playoffs this year. Watch all the hallmark movies you want, but don’t turn off your mind in the process.

Christians can also copy the culture around them. If you like today’s pop music, let me introduce you to a band called Hillsong. Or are you into Romance novels? Try Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love. Anything the world can do, we can do Christianly. 

One step toward culture beyond copying it is plain consuming it. Christians attend concerts, eat pasta, learn calculus, and watch professional football. We don’t condemn the use of guitars, critique the principles of calculus (unless you’re me in Mr. Baird’s AP class), or copy the NFL by making a ‘Christian’ Football League. We consume these things, somewhat mindlessly. 

All four of the previous postures are directed to cultural products already made, but Christians are also active culture makers. We write books, sing songs, craft recipes, and create stuff for Christians and non-Christians alike. Some of our contributions turn out well – Hospitals, Handel’s Messiah, MLK’s “I Have A Dream” Speech, the Women’s Suffrage movement to name a few.

But it’s a mixed bag: with every C.S. Lewis comes a Joel Osteen.

IV.

Talk about culture in various Christian circles may refer to politics or hot-button issues or plainly ‘what the secular world is doing’. These are important topics for Christians to explore but their scope is too narrow to encompass the fullness of human culture.

As Ohio State football is a culture, your family is a culture, having its own sense of time (Dinner’s at 5:30), sharing its collection of stories (remember last year when…) and its own revered objects, shared behaviors and relational norms.

The work for Christians – and for Buckeye fans – is setting all of our cultural artifacts in the light of Scripture and discerning which must be condemned, critiqued, copied, consumed or recreated.

That project is the work of a lifetime, but we can start small. “Despise not the day of small things,” says the Lord (Zechariah 4:8). Some questions for you to reflect on during the upcoming Christmas season:

1. Is your dining room a place of warmth and discovery or anxiety and loneliness? Who talks during dinner and, more importantly, who doesn’t? How does the meal start and how does it end? What new norms can you introduce that make your table a more good and welcoming place for every person involved?

2. What are the leaving and greeting rituals in your home? What gets said and what gets left unsaid? How do these mini-interactions shape the overall quality of your relationships?

3. What is your media diet — your collection of podcasts, songs, books, television shows and movies? Pick out your 3 most dominant cultural inputs. Ask yourself: what’s true about their message and what’s false and misleading? What do they suggest is good and desirable? And how are they shaping you?

4. What words or behaviors were condemned in your family growing up? How’d that form you as a person? What about in your home today? 

5. What physical objects could you purchase or platform that would signal your values to your workplace or in your home? What is your home and work space designed for?

In Colossians Chapter 1, Paul writes “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” 

We reflect on Christ and the culture around us so that we may know God’s will in all things and live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing to him in every way – in our kindness at the dinner table, in our wisdom at the workplace, and even in our fandom at the football game.