So my question is about being anti-secular when it comes to entertainment. I met someone who is so anti-secular when it comes to the entertainment industries. Only listens to Christian music, only watches faith based films, reads books only by Christian authors etc. I wonder how many other people are like that? If you are one of those people how do you think it effects your social circle? How do people respond? What effect does it have if any on your life? At first the idea seemed extreme but at the same time the challenge intrigued me, being Christ centered is very important to me.
Such sentiment seems to stem from the idea that "secular" somehow means "bad". But Christianity has never been about denying the secular aspects of life--food, work, entertainment, etc. And I suspect a lot of the sentiment comes from a misunderstanding of the biblical warnings against worldliness, such as when we read that "friendship with the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). But worldliness isn't secular activities, but rather a participation and sharing in the values of "the world".
It can be helpful then to understand what "the world" means in such a context. The Greek word which is often translated as "world" is
kosmos. Originally
kosmos just meant "order" or "system", and is the opposite of
chaos, disorder. Early Greek philosophers applied the word to the order they saw in nature, and thus was used to describe what we would today call the universe, or cosmos. By the time of the New Testament the word kosmos carried different senses and meanings, nuances based on context. That's why in John 3:16 we read that "God so loved the kosmos that He gave His only-begotten Son", here it seems to be referring to the world in the sense of all of us, the created world and the inhabitants of it. But in other places kosmos is used to refer to the present state of affairs, the way in which the present and fallen age is ordered and governed. The world-order of the present and sinful age is one in which sin dominates, it's where selfishness, apathy, greed, malice, violence, and so forth hold sway. The way of the world is dog-eat-dog, look out for yourself and for your own, might makes right. The "values" of the world are selfishness, power, strength, personal glory, etc. It's this which constitutes worldliness, and it is these things which we are to have no affection for.
Let's consider 1 Corinthians 1, where we read St. Paul saying,
"
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" - 1 Corinthians 1:20-31
As such, worldliness is not watching TV shows or movies, or listening to music. Worldiness, instead, would be thinking we are wise and prosperous because we don't watch certain shows or listen to certain forms of music--that we have accomplished some noble act of holiness in this, and thus the pride of our flesh is puffed up. Worldliness isn't wearing certain kinds of clothes, but rather in judging others for what they wear. Thinking you're more important than someone else? That's worldliness. Seeking ourselves and glorying in ourselves? That's worldliness.
-CryptoLutheran