Western culture, these days, could be described as feel-good. Accomplishing something seems to require emotions like anger, popular images, and common and familiar words and phrases. We win any argument if we can broadcast all three. We can be like angry people who shout and wave flags, and that can satisfy our search for truth.

If you’re not sure what I mean, we have a recent example. You probably know that Sinéad O’Connor died recently at the age of 56. I was familiar with her songs, and I heard that she had converted to Islam, but I don’t know much more about her.

I don’t need to know more, and you are in the same position. Our modern culture will tell us how to think without too many details:

• READ: Sinéad O’Connor paid dearly for criticizing the Catholic church. History proved her right. | CNN

Notice, from the title of the CNN article above, we have a highly polarized argument; Sinéad O’Connor versus the Roman Catholic Church.

Apparently, Sinéad won.

When a Roman Catholic Irish woman converts to Islam, there must be an interesting story. Complexity is a good word to apply here.

But in modern culture, we don’t learn about a complex and interesting story. We get one side that is completely right, and the other must be completely wrong.

In the record of this argument with Sinéad O’Connor, we learn how she tore up a picture of the Pope in front of television cameras, in anger. We also have a slogan or mantra “Fight the right enemy!”

Notice the three elements; emotion (extreme anger), an iconic image (tearing up a photograph), and iconic slogan words (Fight the right enemy!). Notice also, that we are not given an analysis and explanation.

The Roman Catholic Church and Islam are huge influential bodies in our world, with about 1.8 billion Muslims and 1.3 billion Roman Catholics.

If there is a struggle between the two groups, the whole world could be shaken. This represents a large part of the spiritual life of the human race.

I don’t want to accuse Sinéad O’Connor of being shallow and making the story too simple. If she was alive today, she might have many things to say. Also, journalists who focus on a few simple things are only doing their job. The culture is us, the consumers. We are part of a culture that promotes simple and extreme, trite, explanations.

If you wonder what the alternatives are, some people don’t follow the patterns of this world. We are told “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

My spiritual life has been a struggle, with no simple answers, and I’m sure your experience is the same. Just me, one person, struggles; and we can multiply that by more than three billion if we count only Muslims and Roman Catholics.

Our spiritual life is much more than a simple, polarized argument, with clear winners and losers. We are naturally separated from God, and finding our way back takes more than a simple argument, with emotions, images, and shouted slogans.

We need to find real truth.

Here is an example of a Christian pastor who offers spiritual food to people who are struggling to find their way:

• READ: What has been your biggest spiritual struggle and how did you get victory

Life is so much more than a woke argument.

I hope we all find real truth, and not just victory in an argument. The words in the Bible are “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” We are complex beings, and that includes our spiritual lives. We need to find our way back to the God who made us. We need to fight the real enemy.

Slogans, images, and emotions might make the other side quiet, in an argument, but they don’t fill our spiritual hunger.

Our culture, conformity to this world, is not spiritual food. Winning an argument is not really a victory.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139: 13 to 17)