Sometimes I like to torture myself. While channel flipping this lazy Saturday afternoon, I came across something on TBN that caught my attention - and not in the wacky bling-bling way.
It didn't last long.
But something occurred to me.
We all see the problem. We all just have different solutions that are unfortunately often times at odds with each other.
The statistic this preacher gave off (unverified) was that only about 4% of teenagers today have a Biblical world view. Their grandparents were at something like 65%.
No matter how literally or liberally you define a Biblical World View, the results are a bit astounding. And we all know that America is only a matter of years behind Europe in being a post-Christian culture.
The concern from this man was genuine and heartfelt. A rare moment on Christian Television that to me didn't seem contrived or hypocritical - but maybe I'm just jaded. He even spoke of how the millions of dollars and the pomp and circumstance and flash and media are not doing anything to change the direction of our culture and we should be concerned. For a minute I thought we was turning emergent on me!
It was creepy, but I actually bonded with this guy...for a moment.
Then his solutions came:
First was prayer. None can argue with that.
But then it fell to the same old rhetoric. That we're not yelling the truth loud enough; that we aren't kicking evolution out of the schools; that psychology is for humanistic God haters; and that the church as been not vocal enough in making things right.
Actually his last point might be correct. We haven't been vocal enough. But in a broad sense, the modern definition and the post-modern definition of vocal are two vastly different things. And although many times we can coexist and even work together; there are other times when our approaches are diametrically opposed to one another.
There have been numerous times recently when I hear what a church is doing in order to promote truth, and my desire is to go apologize on behalf of all those who have been hurt by people who hold rational truth as the fourth member of the Trinity.
With all do respect to the man inside my TV this afternoon, I can resound a hearty "Amen" (It is TBN after all) to his premise (after throwing out some really bad theology - which leads to another point - how can someone who holds truth so dear, have such bad hermeneutics?), but to his conclusion, I must say we are like Mars and Venus. You can decided who's who.
3 comments:
are you like a rubber band or a wave???? ;)
Good stuff David. It seems to me that there is a clear divergence of response. Some are looking at the problem (post-christnedom, falling church attendance, secularisation of society, absence of morality etc) and are looking for some fresh solutions.
Others seems to be getting more and more entrenched in their views and methods, stuck in what we have always done and hoping for better results.
I actually think we need a bit of both. I am far more in the first camp than the second, but somehow i also think we need some of the second two, just perhaps with a little less dogamatism and tub-thumping...
I'm a light Paul, both a wave and a particle. ;-)
I agree Paul and I also solidly land in the second camp, I understand that in this day of massive transition, there is a need and time for the first camp still.
Now, can Mars and Venus actually get along together when needed?
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