cultural norms and divine norms

In the blog charter (first post ever, back when there were more posts labeled "Mitigating the Objections" than "Christian Errors") I wrote that the online arguments I seek to confront are in fact centuries old. I believe that a similarly ancient history applies to many of the common mistakes committed by people as they seek to live as Christians.

(And to digress momentarily, a third belief of mine is that people who don't learn about the great controversies of Christian theology are destined to relive such. Recently I heard some people giving their opinions about when and how many times baptism should happen, but I strongly suspect none of them knows what "Anabaptist" means.)

Perhaps the most quintessential Christian mistake is to exalt a cultural norm into a divine norm. Examples abound, probably because Christians stumble into it through a variety of routes:

• As a culture and its norms change, Christians accustomed to the previous set of norms may not be willing to fairly evaluate the changes. "In the Christian culture of my past, we'd never ______!"
  
• Christians originally invent a particular practice or prohibition in order to aggressively pursue God or prevent wrongdoing. Then other Christians assume that the practice or prohibition is not only recommended but necessary for all "true" Christians.
  
• Within any culture, conformance to established norms (formal or informal, written or unwritten) is part of indicating one's status. Violating those norms reduces status, and low status reduces credibility, and low credibility reduces the success of evangelism. Therefore, just as Paul's letters instruct, for the purpose of evangelism Christians should adhere to cultural norms that aren't sins. But as they do so, they shouldn't confuse the cultural definition of a "good" person with the Christian definition. "'Everyone' knows that good people don't have that hair style. This is an affront against God!"
• A more contentious category is cultural norms among Christians in regard to prayer, worship, interpersonal interaction, biblical interpretation, and organizational hierarchy. I opt not to delve into it any more than I have in previous entries, except to suggest that these differences often aren't as important or God-pleasing as people assume.