***This is a revised version of an early post I wrote for my earlier blog. I think it is still more relevant than ever.
We are certainly living in interesting times. Who could have thought 50, 100, or 150 years ago, for example, that a single man, living in northwest Alabama, could not only type his thoughts out on a machine and then transmit them to a worldwide audience with a press of a button, all without one single sheet of paper? Technology and scientific discovery has rocketed mankind far beyond what the previous ages could have imagined.
These advances in science and technology, though, have had a tremendous effect on religion. In fact, more people in Europe and America are becoming less and less religious, and more and more “secular.” Why has this happened? A standard answer that is given nowadays is that science and evolution somehow “prove” that we are simply evolving away from our primitive religious roots. A simple answer to that is, “No, science and evolution don’t ‘prove’ that. You can’t confuse statements about biology with philosophical assertions.”
Another answer that can be given is that, at least in America, Christianity is becoming more and more irrelevant to people’s lives. Be it the stale redundancy in mainline churches, the adolescent/ADD mentality of the more “hip” and emerging churches, or the glitzy commercialism of the mega-churches, there is just something missing…in all of them.
Nevertheless, I am a Christian. Yet I have come to realize that the only person responsible for my overall maturation and development, be it spiritual, emotional, or intellectual, is me. I cannot rely on anybody else to live my life. And so, in the course of my 45 years of life, as I have searched for truth, meaning, and purpose in life, I have come to the conviction that the claims of Christianity are, in fact, true. This is, though, very discouraging in an ironic way—equal to my conviction that Christianity is true, is the co-equal conviction that, for the most part, the “Christianity” I see in most Evangelical churches in America resides in a shallow grave. Attempts to “make Christianity relevant,” however sincere, seem to amount to nothing more than putting a little more make-up on the face, and a little more embalming fluid in the veins, of a corpse.
The essential Christian hope is that of a future resurrection of all creation. The basis for this hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ—that is the central claim of Christianity. Unfortunately, most churches resemble the night of the living dead, and not a community living out the resurrection life that Christ promised to his followers. Now please note, I have met plenty of individual Christians who are, in fact, living out a resurrection life—they are sincere, thoughtful, rational, inquisitive, and are truly seeking after the truth. For some reason, though, get these vibrant believers in a typical church service, and all the life goes out of them. Why is that? Well, that is a question for another day…
Let’s face it, we are living in a new world—modernism has been the predominant worldview for the past 250 years, and currently we are experiencing what some call a “postmodern” turn. Simply put, postmodernism can be summed up as this: it looks at all the utopian promises that modernism has made of a brave new world, and it has given it the middle finger. Nothing demonstrates this as vividly as Green Day’s song, “Mass Hysteria/Modern World.” Without quoting the entire song, I will just quote a few lines:
I can hear the sound of a beating heart that bleeds beyond a system that’s falling apart
With money to burn on a minimum wage, ‘Cause I don’t give a shit about the modern age
I don’t want to live in the modern world
The challenge for anyone today is how to navigate between the “prophecies and proclamations” of sages of modernism that still hold the seats of power in today’s world and the rising rhetoric and revolution of postmodernism. And the scary thing is that some of these “modernistic sages” do, in fact, have positions of power in many churches. They’re saying the name of Christ, but they really are preaching a modernistic gospel from an Enlightenment worldview. If you’re asking, “What does that mean?” Well, keep coming back to the blog—we’ll tease that out over time.
True Christianity is neither “modern” nor “postmodern.” True Christianity is life—resurrection life. And the only way to live it is to first put to death the idols of our age that we find ourselves wanting to bow down to every day. They could be the “idols” of pop culture and the vulgarization and oversexualization of the human being, be it on TV, music videos, or the movies. They could be the “idols” of the political Left, beholden to such a progressive ideology that actually finds itself defending the practice of harvesting aborted baby organs and then selling them to the highest bidder. They could also be the “idols” of ultra-fundamentalist Evangelicalism, beholden to a literalistic (and ironically anti-biblical) interpretation of the Bible that says if you don’t believe the entire universe is 6,000 years old then you are “subverting God’s Word,” when in reality you are simply saying a man like Ken Ham is wrong.
All of these ideologies and idols, in fact, distract us from the real spiritual journey God is calling us to. You don’t have to think about the state of your soul when you’re too busy looking at bikini pics of Kendell Jenner. You don’t have to bother with picking up your cross when you’re too busy watching MSNBC and parroting the rantings of yet another Leftist website. And you certainly don’t have to think about what it actually means to be created in God’s image, when you’re obsessing over trying to prove that Adam and Eve had a pet stegosaurus.
That is why I’m starting this blog. It is my attempt to articulate a truly Christian worldview in the midst of the ongoing host of issues that rise up and challenge us every day. I will state my views in the hope that others will respond with their views, and hopefully, through a sincere, relentless, and respectful search for truth, our dialogue can help resurrect a true Christian Orthodoxy that can live, breath, and work throughout our world.
