Chapter 4: Wild Power (Part 4)
Unhooking from Cultural Control and Nurturing Holy Anarchy
Culture: The Water We Swim In
We do not live outside of culture. From the moment we are born, we are shaped by stories, habits, symbols, and expectations — the shared web of meaning that tells us who we are, how things work, and what is good, true, and real.
Culture is both a gift and a trap. It offers belonging, shared meaning, and inherited wisdom. But it also limits what we can see, imagine, or question. Culture teaches us to fit in before it teaches us to wake up.
The Cultural Invention of an Omnipotent God
Take, for example, the deeply entrenched idea that God is all-powerful, all-controlling — the omnipotent Sovereign above all. This idea did not arise from some neutral reading of scripture. It reflects the deep structures of the cultures that shaped it: Greek philosophy (where perfection was imagined as unchanging and absolute), Roman imperial theology (where God looked like Caesar), and medieval Christendom (where divine authority mirrored the king’s command).
The Control Model of Power
Our own culture still breathes these assumptions. Power is imagined as force. Authority is defined by the ability to control. The highest power — including God’s — is imagined as unilateral: the power to make others obey.
Breaking the Will vs Honoring the Wild
It’s no accident that many in our culture still believe children must have their wills “broken” to become obedient. James Dobson, a bestselling evangelical author, once wrote that corporal punishment was necessary to break the rebellious spirit of a child. It’s a chilling parallel to how we imagine God’s relationship with humanity: not as a gentle co-creator, but as a cosmic disciplinarian.
Power by Trust, Not by Force
But not all cultures train us to worship domination. Some see “wildness” — self-will, agency, uniqueness — as sacred. Think of the difference between breaking a wild colt and the methods of a “horse whisperer,” who builds trust until the animal wants to follow. That is the power of relationship — not domination.
Culture Is Not Destiny
We cannot escape culture. But we can become conscious of the cultural waters we’re swimming in. We can ask: What kind of culture am I reproducing? What kind of god-image am I living by? What kind of community am I building?
To begin to live differently — to unhook from the old ways — we must first recognize that the controlling power we’ve been taught to admire is not inevitable. It is not divine. It is cultural.
And that means it can be changed.
In the next part, we’ll explore what it means to embody a different kind of power in actual community — in relationship, in messiness, in trust. What does it mean to walk with one another in wildness rather than obedience?
Exactly. I've been thinking of the "blank palette"; though we're not exactly that, so much of our being comes from culture. I was thinking how you have a "leaning" towards the Christ figure, that's because it's what you were taught. I'm trying to understand god through science.