counterculturalist

Are You a Counterculturalist?

3 February 2025

6.3 MINS

There is a place for the right kind of rebellion, resistance and nonconformity.

The ’60s and ’70s were a time of radical social and political turmoil and upheaval. This was the time when the hippy movement, the ‘peace and love’ generation, and the New Left erupted in America and the West. Popular culture at the time reflected all that in books, films and music. They glamorised rebellion, defying authority, drug-taking, and protests against the system. A few songs that come to mind include:

  • “The Times They Are a-Changin’” by Bob Dylan (1964)
  • “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire (1965)
  • “Time Has Come Today” by the Chambers Brothers (1967)
  • “Volunteers” by Jefferson Airplane (1969)
  • “War! What is it good for?” by Edwin Starr (1970)
  • “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell (1970)
  • “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1971)
  • “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens (1971)
  • “Rebel, Rebel” by David Bowie (1974)

A few of the books that can be mentioned:

  • The Politics of Experience by R. D. Laing (1967)
  • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968)
  • Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver (1968)
  • The Politics of Ecstasy by Timothy Leary (1968)
  • DO IT! Scenarios of the Revolution by Jerry Rubin (1970)

Finally, some films would include:

  • Easy Rider (1969)
  • Woodstock (1969)
  • Zabriskie Point (1970)

All this had to do with the ’60s counterculture. For those who are too young, or not in the know, one definition of a counterculture is ‘a culture whose values and norms of behaviour differ substantially from those of mainstream society.’ It seems that the term first appeared in the 1969 book The Making of a Counterculture by the American writer Theodore Roszak.

If you are a bit older, you might recall those heady days. And if you are like me, you might actually have been involved in it. I was fully into this time of rebellion and resistance. I was reading reams of Marxist and leftist literature at the time, and I became convinced that the mainstream culture had to be fully rejected, resisted and overthrown. You can read about my early days of being a wild child of the revolution here.

Revolution

Little did I know that at the age of 18 when I left this movement that I was simply trading in one counterculture for another. Let me explain. In the early 1950s when I was born, one could still say that American culture, and much of Western culture, was essentially Christian culture.

By the time of the late ’60s and early ’70s, one needed to speak of living in a post-Christian culture. And today, it is more accurate to speak of being in an anti-Christian culture. As such, I became a card-carrying member of not one but two hardcore countercultures.

As mentioned, I was fully immersed in the radicalism of the 60s. But when I became a Christian in August of 1971, I simply moved from one counterculture to another. If being a radical and a hippy in the 60s meant you were on the fringes of society, estranged from the surrounding culture, and seen as a rebel and an outsider, well, guess what? It is now the same for being a Christian today.

We believers have been relegated to the margins of society, and the mainstream culture views us with suspicion, disdain and contempt. We are seen as troublemakers and malcontents. We are viewed to be rebellious oddballs who need to be put in our place, in order to maintain the status quo.

So I have now experienced two terms of being at odds with the society that I live in. But the Christian should not be surprised at being an outsider and a castaway from the culture of the day. Jesus himself promised his followers that they would not just be rejected by others, but they would be hated as well. And the New Testament makes it clear that Christ-followers will be rejected, scorned, and persecuted.

Scripture throughout testifies to the believer’s countercultural role. Consider just two passages, one from each Testament. When the prophet Elijah appeared before the wicked King Ahab, he was called “the troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17). And it was said of the early disciples that they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

It is always this way. But when one is living just in the present, it is hard to get real perspective. With age, however, there hopefully comes the ability to look back and reflect on the changes that have taken place over many decades. A century ago in the West, you were viewed as being somewhat odd and a bit of a misfit if you were not a Christian. Today, you are viewed the same way if you are a Christian.

Distinct from the World

Some Christians were able to clearly see all this early on. They had the insight and perception to know that the Christian is the real counterculturalist. One notable example of this was the English Christian leader and biblical expositor John Stott (1921-2011). If you are unfamiliar with him, see this piece.

Back in 1978, he released the book The Christian Counter-Culture (IVP). In 1984, it was re-released as The Message of the Sermon on the Mount in “The Bible Speaks Today” series. So nearly a half century ago, Stott was aware that believers are the real counterculturalists.

If the Bible is a countercultural book, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is especially so. God’s people have always meant to be distinct from the world, stand out from the world, and convict the world. Early on, Stott says this:Sermon on the Mount

Insofar as the church is conformed to the world, and the two communities appear to the onlooker to be merely two versions of the same thing, the church is contradicting its true identity. No comment could be more hurtful to the Christian than the words, ‘But you are no different from anybody else.’

For the essential theme of the whole Bible from beginning to end is that God’s historical purpose is to call out a people for himself; that this people is a ‘holy’ people, set apart from the world to belong to him and to obey him; and that its vocation is to be true to its identity, that is, to be ‘holy’ or ‘different’ in all its outlook and behaviour. (p. 17)

He goes on to write:

There is no single paragraph of the Sermon on the Mount in which this contrast between Christian and non-Christian standards is not drawn. It is the underlying and uniting theme of the Sermon; everything else is a variation of it. Sometimes it is the Gentiles or pagan nations with whom Jesus contrasts his followers…

At other times Jesus contrasts his disciples not with Gentiles but with Jews, not (that is) with heathen people but with religious people, in particular with the ‘scribes and Pharisees’…

Thus the followers of Jesus are to be different – different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, life-style and network of relationships – all of which are totally at variance with those of the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule. (p. 19)

In his discussion on the command for believers to be salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16), Stott says this:

Christian saltiness is Christian character as depicted in the beatitudes, committed Christian discipleship exemplified in both deed and word. For effectiveness the Christian must retain his Christlikeness, as salt must retain its saltness. If Christians become assimilated to non-Christians and contaminated by the impurities of the world, they lose their influence. The influence of Christians in and on society depends on their being distinct, not identical. Dr Lloyd-Jones emphasizes this: “The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first.” Otherwise, if we Christians are indistinguishable from non-Christians, we are useless. We might as well be discarded like saltless salt, ‘thrown out and trampled under foot by men’. ‘But what a downcome,’ comments A. B. Bruce, ‘from being saviours of society to supplying materials for footpaths!’ (p. 60)

And again:

There is a fundamental difference between Christians and non-Christians, between the church and the world. True, some non-Christians adopt a deceptive veneer of Christian culture. Some professing Christians, on the other hand, seem indistinguishable from non-Christians and so deny their Christian name by their non-Christian behaviour. Yet the essential difference remains. We might say that they are as different as chalk from cheese. Jesus said they are as different as light from darkness, as different as salt from decay and disease. We serve neither God, nor ourselves, nor the world by attempting to obliterate or even minimize this difference.

This theme is basic to the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon is built on the assumption that Christians are different, and it issues a call to us to be different. Probably the greatest tragedy of the church throughout its long and chequered history has been its constant tendency to conform to the prevailing culture instead of developing a Christian counter-culture. (p. 63)

As I say, for all of my adult life, I have been a counterculturalist. First, it was with the utopian, idealistic, yet ultimately defective hard-left version of events, built on the sinking sands of relativism, humanism, envy and hate. But then, by God’s grace, I found the real deal, built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, His unchanging Word, love and forgiveness. I know which I prefer.

Who will join me in being a real rebel, a real outsider, and a real counterculturalist?

___

Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Adobe.

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6 Comments

  1. Warwick Marsh 3 February 2025 at 10:21 am - Reply

    As one fellow counterculturualist to another. Soli Dei Gloria!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Bill Muehlenberg 3 February 2025 at 10:31 am - Reply

    Amen Warwick.

  3. Pauline Tondl 3 February 2025 at 12:45 pm - Reply

    Nice article Bill :))
    I’ve already joined you ! It’s an exhilarating place to be !
    I’ve been heard to say on many occasions when I don’t do the ‘cultural’ thing … “oh, just setting a trend” 😁
    Blessings for your insightful encouragements and admonishments :))

  4. Bill Muehlenberg 3 February 2025 at 2:12 pm - Reply

    Many thanks Pauline.

  5. Countess Antonia Maria Violetta Scrivanich 4 February 2025 at 9:32 am - Reply

    Counter -culture of 1960s never appealed to me . I was happy being an Individual, not needing to belong to a group, but, prefering my own views. I never bothered with drink , drugs + free sex. I enjoyed spending much time in beautiful , feminine dresses + picture hats being rowed on the RiverTorrens by male university students, being taken to restaurants between lectures, driven home in luxury cars like 2 E-Type Jags + 14 marriage proposals from professional men of some of Adelaide’s richest families , all of which I turned down. I got the lead role in a Play for The Adelaide Festival of Arts. I was only 20. Often , I skipped lectures which bored me .I used to invent my answers to exams because I had not done any of the study. I passed an exam inventing everything. All the girls hated me because all the young men flocked around me. Sometimes 3 arrived simultaneously at my parents’ door to take me out .A smart one had a great sheath of flowers for my mother , who , to my annoyance, let in a chap who bored me for the entire evening . The neighbours called it “Tania’s Circus !” My best friend introduced me to a love of Aboriginal works+ taught me to sew all my clothes. Friday + Saturday I danced at The Wonderland opening the night with my Cha Cha . Saturday I sat watching yacht races + helping Mother doing ironing + vaccuming the house . My naughty ways caught up with me , I failed my last exam because I not attended any lectures . The other girls enjoyed+ laughed at my grief. I am still stubborn , so, no one can change my belief in God . I have no regrets about my naughty university days because so much since then has been a life of struggle with no money for food ,tragedy , court cases, health problems, etc. I enjoyed my youth , but, saved myself for my marriage. No regrets. I thank God for all He has given me, the wonderful + the bad + the unfortunate situation I am trapped in now.

  6. Bill Muehlenberg 4 February 2025 at 10:25 am - Reply

    Thanks Countess.

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