Within the Fold – Shepherd The Narrative

I will continue with Part V of The Grand Narrative on Monday. Today I want to take a little side trip, and a deeper look, into the connection between storytelling and the shaping of culture. There is so much we can explore between the pages, or “within the fold,” of The Grand Narrative. This idea came to me from Mike, a commenter on Part III of this unfolding story of GOD, MAN, and the CHURCH.  Mike put me on to an article at Breitbart’s BIG HOLLYWOOD site titled “Politics Really is Downstream from Culture.” The author speaks my language here, and I found inspiration. So today I want to examine this idea a bit further.

As some of you know by now, I have been saying for the last year or more, that “politics is downstream of culture and culture is downstream of religion.” In fact, I even wrote an article about it titled Garbage In – Garbage Out on my previous blog, Nourishment For The Famished Patriot.

Of course elections matter. They matter gravely. If we are to maintain our political freedom, then voting thoughtfully in every election is the most basic responsibility we have in a free society. But how many times have we said, or heard it said, “It’s a choice between the lesser of two evils”? Ask yourself the question, “Who chooses those two lessers? The reality is that by the time we walk into the voting booth, others have already narrowed the choices for us, and radically so. So, while voting responsibly is a duty, vigorous engagement in the more intimate processes of self-government is not a responsibility to be taken lightly either. The lofty ideal of self-government diminishes each time that job is left to someone else.

Yes, politics is downstream of culture. But while we work at repairing our culture, let us not neglect our politics, unpleasant as they may be. Now, let’s move on to shepherding the narrative. BIG HOLLYWOOD’s blog-author, Lawrence Meyers, writes,

“Our lives — indeed, our very species — has storytelling wound into our DNA. From the earliest cave drawings, man has expressed himself in terms of story. Ancient civilizations understood that stories are vital to understanding our place in the world, so much so that they codified storytelling and found base rules that form it. Oral histories are a part of every culture across the globe.

“Stories instill moral and ethical values. They place joy and tragedy in context. They preserve cultures. At their best, they deliver the secrets and meanings of life.”

In Part I of The Grand Narrative, I wrote,

” … God is the ultimate, capital “S” Storyteller. His Word, the Holy Scriptures, overflows with stories, and … the best stories are the ones that are crafted from the same template with which God crafts His stories … The capital “S” Storyteller’s template is written in our hearts. That is why we can tell a good story from a bad story.”

Meyers explains how we unconsciously take in messages all day long through the stories we hear in conversations, read in books or magazines, or view on television and film. Stories shape our thinking. And if the messages in the stories sound a consistent theme impacting large sectors of our population, our culture is likewise shaped. Thus, those who control the stories, control the direction of the culture.

Meyers continues,

“Regardless of one’s ideological, moral, ethical, or religious leanings, every person should be aware of the messaging of every piece of popular culture. The thesis here at BH is that the vast majority of those with the power of content creation are Liberals. If you accept that thesis, then realize that Liberals control story. Given the breadth and depth of popular culture in our daily lives, it follows that Liberal messaging is what is primarily being imparted on the masses.”

Troubling indeed.

Meyers and I come to the same conclusion …

“The Right has sat idly by, as they did with higher education, and let an ideological movement take over one of the most important aspects of American society.”

It is the storytellers who shape the culture. Be they a professor at a classroom lectern, a president at his bully pulpit, a newsman at his anchor desk, a screenwriter, fiction author, magazine editor, or a singer/songwriter, those who tell stories determine the courses of nations.

Why are we Christians largely off the grid in culture-shaping, storyteller roles? Why are THEY and not WE the ones shepherding the narrative?

One of the goals of The Famished Patriot blog is to explore such questions. So stay tuned. I have many thoughts on this, and you won’t want to miss them. So, if you haven’t already done so, please subscribe. Then you won’t miss any of the good stuff that’s coming.

On Monday I will pick up with Part V, The Grand Narrative with the CHURCH as the protagonist.