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Chameleon Christianity: Moving Beyond Safety and Conformity

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Dick Keyes draws on his extensive experience in community to formulate a telling synopsis of the Church's reactions to the culture around it. This book is a fantastic review of church behaviour and guide for getting it right in the future. I found this book ethusing because it speaks right into the problems, whose effects I had felt in my own christian experience. I recommend it for any christian, any church leader or christian group leader who truely wants to be relevant without being indetectable through over accomodation of the current culture.

Only 112 pages long, this book is a deep yet very readable treatment of sometimes uncomfortable topics. The title comes from one of two errors Keyes sees the modern evangelical/conservative church making, the temptation to adapt so much to the culture around it as to lose its own distinctive identity, failing to truly salt the earth as Christ commands. The book also deals with an opposite tendency to be avoided, that of being "musk oxen" tribalists who so shelter themselves from "the world" that they never reach out with the light of Christ.

This is an excellent read for all evangelical, conservative Christians and would be a good resource for anyone preparing a sermon or study series on Matthew 5:13-16. It would also make a good primary small group text for those interested in considering their own congregation's response to the immediate community and to the culture at large.

This powerful little book brings concrete answers to the question: how can a Christian be salt and light in the world? Keyes has multiple answers to this question. He begins his work by arguing that a Christian cannot be salt and light in the world simply as a chameleon, which just blends in with what is around it. This sort of Christian is near to the world, but has lost its radical edge to confront the world and to bring Gospel-change; however, Keyes identifies for the reader a second sort of Christian who fails to be salt and light. This Christian is the "musk ox" which circles around its own, warding off the outsiders. While the chameleon is so much like the culture that he loses his salt-like edge, the musk ox is so separate from and antagonistic to culture that he loses his necessary relevance.

Keyes suggests four methods of recovering the proper relation of the Christian to the culture. First, every believer must come to a deeper understanding of apologetics. The writer explains that there are many roadblocks for the lost to understand and accept Christianity and that these roadblocks must be carefully navigated if the believer wants to fulfill the expectation of being the salt and light which the Savior has called them to be. Second, the reader is called to logically reject relativism. Relativism is the moral code of modern society, but this moral code is flawed. Only in Christ does one find the solution to the problem of relativism. Third, the writer calls for an embrace of the church as a community. In the face of an individualistic society, Christianity offers true community. This reality confronts and challenges the lost because they have nothing to compare with it, because it appeals to something transcendent - something different and better. Keyes offers a number of challenges to churches and explains what a salt and light community in today's culture really looks like. Finally, Christians are called to recover their foundations. In this last chapter, believers are called to look back to their hope in the Gospel and the final apologetic of love, and to live in those. In these four ways, modern believers can move away from polarized extremes and towards a true outreach to the community outside the faith.

Key themes throughout the book illustrate how Christians fail to be salt and light because they are chameleons or musk oxen. A chameleon is a Christian who does not affirm any Christian teaching that runs contrary with society. The musk ox tries to protect its Christian distinctives by staying within its won subculture. Keyes sites the Israelites' assimilation and compromise when they occupied the Promised Land under Joshua as a biblical example of a chameleon. The Pharisees are this biblical example for a musk ox. I feel the pull in both directions in my life. I want to be liked by everybody so I find myself avoid differing from those who I seek approval. Keyes is right. This is the road to being a chameleon. I will keep in mind the words of Jesus in Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all speak well of you."

Dick Keyes book focuses on how Christians can remain distinctive ("salt") while still proclaiming Christ ("light") in an appropriate way. The book touches on many important issues, most of which are discussed in limited fashion. Nonetheless, I found the book interesting, accessible, and worthwhile. I strongly recommend it, particularly for church leaders.