When Christianity Begs

"We forget that we are Christians, which means we are to confess the lordship of Jesus Christ over every aspect of life. For some mysterious reason, we have settled for the lordship of Christ over some precincts of heaven, but everything else belongs to Time Warner or Ted Turner. We have made our peace with our situation. But at least the prodigal son had the good sense to be revolted when the pig food was starting to look good to him -- we in contrast take our hunger as an indication that we will soon be accepted into the best porcine circles, over there on the other side of the pen. We wait patiently for our place at the trough... er, table. We do not cast our pearls before swine; we cast ourselves." - Douglas Wilson (emphasis mine)

Why is it that Christianity in America is trying to emulate her surounding secular society? I understand, from an evangelist's point, that Christians need to be integrated into their culture (not something difficult to do in the States) but why integrate through immitation? Paul said that to the Jews he became like a Jew and to the Gentiles he became like a Gentile, but this "becoming like" on the part of Paul was not in the form of immitation and assimilation; he was not a cultural sponge. No, Paul understood that his citizenship was in the Heavenly kingdom and this is what enabled him to be all things to all men. The goal is salvation from the culture of the world to the culture of heaven.