How "Post Modern" Are You, My Brother?
Some within our ranks look at such an observation (that we are becoming a post modern church) and shake their fists at me and the orthodox theological world I trust as they autonomously proclaim: “I am exercising my God given right to speak my mind, to share my point of view, to tell anyone who will listen what it is that I believe. And by golly, what I believe matters!!! So come close and listen as I set the record straight and put those pagans in their place.” Maybe we don’t use these exact words, but we are convinced that our opinion is just as important an anyone else's, that our right to speak is a God given and a human right, and that the legitimacy of “my opinion” is what makes this country what it is. Even as I write this “blog” I am participating in a form of expression which has grown out of the post modern worldview. A person does not need to know what they are talking about to write a blog, they simply need a desire to speak, a keyboard and an internet connection, and the post modern world celebrates our right of expression. As Christians, however, we often do not realize that as we do this, we quite often become children of the same modern philosophy and culture we ought to deny and critique (as Romans 12:1,2 clearly proclaims).
When I, as a Believer, convince myself that I have the right to decide truth for me and truth for you, based of course on my version of truth for me, and that I am accountable to none but my own understanding of truth when it comes to my moral beliefs and choices, then I have done nothing more than create a baptized version of post modernism. I am actually doing the same thing a person is doing when they fight a personal battle for gay rights, or push across their own personal preferences for health care, or fire an individual for having a tattoo, or dismiss a friend because they voted Democrat in the last presidential election, or discard a church because they are not doing missions my way, or decide to get a divorce because my spouse is thwarting my spiritual journey, or on and on I can go. When we who are in the church elevate personal preference as the means by which we choose our faith commitments, we are simply showing that we are in fact children of this post modern world. It matters little that we claim to be Biblically informed in choosing our personal preferences, if we have decided that our personal understanding of the Scripture is the end of the matter. If we have trained ourselves to trust only teachers who we agree with; adopt theological viewpoints that attest to what I already have chosen to believe; and abandon efforts in our life to expose ourselves continually to differing theological points of view, then we are simply proving our commitment to a “post modern” version of faith - a world in which personal opinion becomes the lens through which all important issues are evaluated, if we can even call this an evaluation. If we are not carefully aware of our cultural tendencies, we can end up with a Moral Compass, doctrinal stances, and dogmatic viewpoints which turn out to be nothing more than pseudo faith based commitments birthed within the bubbling brook of personal preference continually flowing from the ocean of a post modern worldview.
Some within our ranks look at such an observation (that we are becoming a post modern church) and shake their fists at me and the orthodox theological world I trust as they autonomously proclaim: “I am exercising my God given right to speak my mind, to share my point of view, to tell anyone who will listen what it is that I believe. And by golly, what I believe matters!!! So come close and listen as I set the record straight and put those pagans in their place.” Maybe we don’t use these exact words, but we are convinced that our opinion is just as important an anyone else's, that our right to speak is a God given and a human right, and that the legitimacy of “my opinion” is what makes this country what it is. Even as I write this “blog” I am participating in a form of expression which has grown out of the post modern worldview. A person does not need to know what they are talking about to write a blog, they simply need a desire to speak, a keyboard and an internet connection, and the post modern world celebrates our right of expression. As Christians, however, we often do not realize that as we do this, we quite often become children of the same modern philosophy and culture we ought to deny and critique (as Romans 12:1,2 clearly proclaims).
When I, as a Believer, convince myself that I have the right to decide truth for me and truth for you, based of course on my version of truth for me, and that I am accountable to none but my own understanding of truth when it comes to my moral beliefs and choices, then I have done nothing more than create a baptized version of post modernism. I am actually doing the same thing a person is doing when they fight a personal battle for gay rights, or push across their own personal preferences for health care, or fire an individual for having a tattoo, or dismiss a friend because they voted Democrat in the last presidential election, or discard a church because they are not doing missions my way, or decide to get a divorce because my spouse is thwarting my spiritual journey, or on and on I can go. When we who are in the church elevate personal preference as the means by which we choose our faith commitments, we are simply showing that we are in fact children of this post modern world. It matters little that we claim to be Biblically informed in choosing our personal preferences, if we have decided that our personal understanding of the Scripture is the end of the matter. If we have trained ourselves to trust only teachers who we agree with; adopt theological viewpoints that attest to what I already have chosen to believe; and abandon efforts in our life to expose ourselves continually to differing theological points of view, then we are simply proving our commitment to a “post modern” version of faith - a world in which personal opinion becomes the lens through which all important issues are evaluated, if we can even call this an evaluation. If we are not carefully aware of our cultural tendencies, we can end up with a Moral Compass, doctrinal stances, and dogmatic viewpoints which turn out to be nothing more than pseudo faith based commitments birthed within the bubbling brook of personal preference continually flowing from the ocean of a post modern worldview.
The Post modern mind is built upon the foundation of individual autonomy and freedom when it comes to determining or deciding truth. I can pull my version of truth from the horoscope I just read, the magazine I just purchased, my own creative idea discovered in the shower this morning, or my own private interpretation of Scripture, but each of these avenues of arriving at Truth are of post modern design. If the ultimate authority is me, whether I claim Jeanne Dixon, Billy Graham, or the Apostle Paul as my source, I am practicing the very philosophy embraced by the culture in which we live.
Written on Sunday, 22 May 2011 16:31 by Rick Farmer
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