VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer, who very publicly lost control of his company, has some great thoughts about the intersection between Christianity and culture at his blog. A couple of excerpts:

Political activism has been the rallying cry of the church for the last 30 years. As a result, we conservative Christians managed to remake congress, reshape the Supreme Court, and elect a President. Twice. We have engaged our culture in a war. (We call it “the culture war.”) And we have won many victories.

But there has been a price for this political focus. Today, 80% of non-Christians in America have a negative view of Christianity. When asked what word first sprang to mind when the term “Evangelical Christian” was mentioned, the number one answer from young adults in America was not “loving” or “self-sacrificing,” but rather, “homophobic.”

For an entire generation of Americans, Christians have become defined by what we are against. By what we hate. By whom we oppose. Jesus’ call that we would be known “by our love” has been lost in our generation.

And this:

So an amazing film about Jesus attracts everyone’s interest, and, research will later show, accomplishes nothing. Why? Because the world doesn’t learn about God by watching Christian movies. The world learns about God by watching Christians. And we Christians are failing to show the world the love of God. We’ve failed to make an invisible God visible. We’ve shown them cranky Christians. Politically-savvy Christians. Market-driven Christians. Ambitous Christians. What we haven’t shown them, are loving Christians. And since Jesus said they would “know you by your love,” I think it’s safe to say the world doesn’t know what a Christian is. And sometimes I suspect we don’t either.

It’s a great post, long but well worth your time. Vischer has been promising some information soon about his next big project.