ProTheism

Dreadfully, I am now starting to experience the propelling of our cultural shift. For the most part, I considered postmodernism exterior to the Christian Church. Furthermore, I considered Christianity and postmodernism ideals to be completely incompatible to say the least, and hostile to each other to say the most. However, the infectious cultural shift to the ideals of postmodernism has not spared Christians, and in fact, has swallowed our very foundations of thought. Let me explain:

As by the title of the post, there is somewhat of a contradiction in terms an oxymoron between Christianity (in the classical sense) and postmodernism. In fact, there’s no compatibility between the two at all. I currently attend a large Conservative Evangelical Christian College. The name of the college and its location are completely irrelevant to my point, so I won’t bother mentioning it. There is no “emergent church” fiddling with the beliefs or convictions that the school holds to. The problem I see is not with the school itself, but the students that attend. Beginning with my first class there, I noticed that several students had a strong “liberal” point of view. I somewhat shrugged it off and presumed that the views were a minority (at least in the context of the school students).

However, as classes progressed and new classes started, I noticed the postmodern ideology grew more intense. This intensity of postmodernism reached a peak last night in class. As in most classes, presentations are usually performed by students at some point. In last night’s class, several students made diverse presentations. Some presentations were liberal—some conservative. I expected at least some controversial topics, but there were few. The controversial presentations were not so much what bothered me; it was what came after.

After each student’s presentation, students have the opportunity to ask questions, or even challenge the presenter’s point of view. Challenge, was exactly what I did. One student made her case for physician assisted suicide—and a lacking one at that. The student, in essence, asserted moral relativism and an inability to attain absolute truth. She also referred to God several times as somewhat of a causer to whatever state(s) (terminally ill) a person was in that justified physician assisted suicide. Following, she asserted her “Christianity” and stated the families’ autonomy to make such decisions over life.

Since I was in a Christian class room, purportedly filled with Christians, I quickly pointed to the theological problems of her point of view. Before she could even answer, there were at least four other students yelling that people don’t even believe the Bible anyway and completely disregarded my argument. Naturally, I corrected them—in that I was not speaking to a secular world view, but a Christian one. Following, I showed what follows when morality is subjective or determined by the family (i.e. abusing children is a “family” issue—no one else has the right to interject). My arguments were completely futile and many accusations arose. Apparently, I am intolerant, my views are true for me but not to anyone else, and that was just my interpretation of Scripture and so on and so fourth.

Here I am, standing in a class room in a conservative evangelical Christian school, being challenged on objective morality, truth, biblical authenticity and authority. I can expect this in the secular world; it’s predicable—but at a conservative Christian School? I was caught incredibly off guard. I was alone---very alone; outnumbered, outgunned, and attacked by the very people who are supposed to be on the same side, standing up for the gospel, standing up for what is right and wrong, and standing up for truth.

There is a serious problem here. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things to argue within the circle of Christianity, but none of which should be the aforementioned objections raised by the other students. Christianity is rotting from within. We no longer are just battling with the non-believing world—we are being attacked by our own and it hurts. I am just emoting at this point—but seriously, its no wonder atheists haven’t the slightest desire to become Christians. In many cases, atheists live a more consistent life than the Christian. What does that tell us? Bad news! Something needs to change.

I don’t want to play the victim; I am just revealing my frustration and a serous predicament for conservative Christianity. Postmodernism does not mix with Christianity; I refer you right back to the oxymoron of this post title “Conservative Evangelical Christian Postmodernism.” What ever happened to moral and intellectual accountability to God? I’m tired, but it’s time to kick-up some dust and just tell it like it is. If were dealing with Christians (or ostensible Christians), we must shown them what Gods word says; they can either accept it or reject it. But if they reject basic Biblical teachings, it’s no longer Christianity it’s something else; it’s their own taste of religion—so let’s not patronize them and call it Christianity.

I’ll end on this note:

Christianity is inherently antithetical to postmodernism- that the gospel isn’t big enough to embrace a philosophy that denies any fundamental truths. We can look postmodern, we can act postmodern, maybe even smell postmodern (who knows?). But the core of our faith cannot be postmodern.