A Christian Perspective

Many conservatives think political correctness forced Christianity and traditional morality to recede from public life. That is surely part of the story. But another part of the story is that political correctness emerged because Christianity and traditional morality receded. Something had to fill the void.

Now, I don’t actually think Christianity is necessarily inadequate to the task of keeping up with the changes of contemporary society. (The pagan Roman civilization Christianity emerged from was certainly less hospitable to Christianity than America today is. You could look it up.) But Christianity, like other religions, still needs to adapt to changing times and the evolving expectations of the people. I’m nothing like an expert on such things, but it seems to me that most churches and denominations understand this. Some respond more successfully than others. But it’s hardly as if they are oblivious to the challenge of “relevance.”

The above-italicized paragraphs come from Jonah Goldberg, one of my favorite writers on National Review. You can read the complete article here. These paragraphs are just a portion of his overall contention that progressives, sometimes also known as liberals (or wackos, extremists, leftists, socialists, and Obamalites) are quicker to grasp our societal changes and then use them to their agenda’s advantage. My concern focuses on his take on Christianity not meeting the evolving expectations of people.

First of all, I agree that traditional morality has receded. It is evident in contemporary language, laws, and television programming.  The no-holds-barred political campaigning is evidential that segments of our society will accept any activity that advances their candidate. We cater to the letter of the law instead of the spirit. We pass laws to protect the spotted owl but allow the murder of unborn babies. I would propose however, that Christianity has remained firm while our society, to include many professing Christians, have chosen to follow a more secular and easier path. Christians are routinely ridiculed as backward thinking, intellectually limited because we believe in the Bible, and mean-spirited because our beliefs are founded on an unchanging God.

Americans have always been acutely concerned with any other person’s opinion of us. This also holds true with our national psyche where we desire the world to like us and to respect us. One of my college history professors was a WWII intelligence officer who interviewed German prisoners of war. He stated that we always asked what they thought of the American forces, while logic would ponder why the victor would even care.  Christians are no different. We struggle through a life on the basis of our faith and the secular world offers only derision. The Bible states that this is what will occur in our lives. We need to hold firm to Biblical principles and if the world recedes from Christianity, it is by their choice. As the world and the ever changing values ebb and flow, it is the continuing duty of the follower of Christ to offer the world an unchanging truth that was the same over 2,000 years ago, today, and tomorrow.