The legalist vs. libertarian debate is nothing new, but Brett McCracken attempts to shed a new light on this topic in his newly published book, “Gray Matters.”

Questioning our culture consumption

McCracken, the managing editor for the Biola Magazine, overseer of social media and a professor in the journalism department, published his second book after many years of interacting with Christian culture. McCracken realized how big the difference in Christians’ cultural opinions are and how frequently unhealthy views divide people, and thus began writing his book.

Intending to target the twenty-somethings who struggle to walk the line between legalism and libertarianism, McCracken said that he split the differing views into two people groups in his book. He named one group “Lee the Legalist” and the other “Lance the Libertarian.”

McCracken explained that Lee the Legalist represents Christians who view culture to be wholly evil and think the only way to preserve a Christian’s holiness is to completely separate themselves from it. Lance the Libertarian represents Christians who rebel from legalism. Lance includes Christians in the younger generation who swing to the opposite side of the pendulum and dive into culture head-first without ever thinking that a Christian’s response to culture should be different.

“As Christians, we should appreciate culture in a healthy way, so I wrote ‘Gray Matters’ to say, ‘It’s not as black and white as we try and make it, and it’s something that requires us to think critically and discerningly,’” McCracken said.

However, McCracken doesn’t claim to have all the answers. He stresses that his book is not a list of dos and don’ts but rather a way to approach culture based on both scripture and Christian wisdom from previous centuries. Through the four main sections of food, music, movies and alcohol that he chose to cover, McCracken hopes to cause readers to seriously think about their daily cultural interactions.

“Culture is a gray area. It is neither all good nor all bad and it has to be wrestled with in a way that you have to think about,” McCracken said.

God’s glory in culture

In McCracken’s experience, the correct appreciation of culture leads to God’s glory. He discovered as sinful beings, very few of us actually succeed in relishing such culture appropriately.

“We are constantly Instagramming ourselves at a restaurant or going to see this movie or this concert. We are willingly sharing our consumption habits with the world so everyone is watching it. What does that say about us? What do we value? It is more important now than ever that Christians bear in mind what their consumption is communicating because people are watching,” McCracken said.

While writing “Gray Matters,” McCracken evaluated his own life compared to the world’s standards. Doing so caused him to become even more passionate about spending his free time correctly.

“Life is short and every question that we have about what we should be watching and doing is an opportunity for us to grow,” McCracken said.