Troy P Zehnder

A question crossed my mind recently: Is there actually an American culture anymore? At first, the answer seems obvious. Of course there is. America has traditions, holidays, values, customs, food, music, language, and history. Yet the more I thought about it, the more complicated the question became.

If you asked someone in 1920 to describe American culture, what would they say? What about someone in 1950? 1975? 1995? Today? Would they all describe the same country? Or would they describe cultures so different that they barely resemble one another?

A person from the 1920s might talk about faith, family, hard work, patriotism, personal responsibility, and community. Someone from the 1950s might add the American Dream, home ownership, and economic opportunity. By the 1970s, individual freedom and self-expression had become dominant themes. By the 1990s, technology, entertainment, and globalization were reshaping the landscape.

Today, ask ten Americans to define American culture and you may get ten different answers. Some will point to freedom. Others will point to diversity. Some will emphasize faith and tradition. Others will emphasize inclusion and individual identity. Some will argue that America has lost its culture. Others will argue that America is simply evolving. The truth may be that both sides are seeing part of the picture. America has always been a nation in motion.

Wave after wave of immigration brought new traditions, foods, languages, and perspectives. New technologies transformed how we communicate. New generations challenged old assumptions. New ideas reshaped the way we view family, faith, work, and society.

Change is not new. In many ways, change is one of the defining characteristics of America itself. Yet there is another question hiding beneath the surface. Can an older generation truly feel at home in a country that no longer values the things they grew up valuing? That question has less to do with politics and more to do with belonging.

Many older Americans look around and see a country that feels unfamiliar. The language is different. The priorities are different. The entertainment is different. The role of faith is different. Even the conversations people have about identity, morality, and purpose often sound different from those of previous generations.

For many, it can feel as though they are living in a place they recognize physically but no longer recognize culturally. You can drive the same roads. Shop in the same stores. Live in the same neighborhood. Attend the same church. And still feel like a stranger in the culture around you.

But perhaps every generation experiences this to some degree. The grandparents of the 1950s were shocked by the changes of the 1960s. The parents of the 1980s struggled to understand parts of the 1990s. Today’s younger generation will likely feel the same way forty years from now when the culture changes again. Maybe the real issue isn’t that culture changes. Maybe it’s that culture often changes faster than people do.

Human beings naturally become attached to the values, customs, and assumptions that shaped their formative years. Those things become part of their identity. When those foundations shift, it can feel less like change and more like loss. Yet cultures that never change become stagnant.

Cultures that change too quickly risk losing their sense of continuity. The challenge is finding the balance between preserving what is valuable and adapting to what is new.

As a Christian, one of the most noticeable shifts I have witnessed is the declining influence of Christianity as the dominant moral framework in American life. Whether one views that as progress or decline, it is difficult to deny that it represents a significant cultural change from the America many of our grandparents knew.

At the same time, America has always been a nation of change, reinvention, and competing ideas. Perhaps that tension has been present from the beginning. So maybe the better question is not whether America has a culture. Perhaps the better question is: What values remain constant enough that Americans from different generations can still recognize one another as part of the same story?

Because before we can decide where we are going, we should probably understand who we are. And before we can answer whether American culture is changing, we should first ask whether we can still define what it is. Maybe that’s the conversation worth having.