Postmoderns and Progressives have similar agenda
POSTMODERNS AND PROGRESSIVES HAVE SIMILAR AGENDA
By Sid Huston
What postmodernism has done to weaken the American church the political Progressive movement is doing to our U.S. Constitution.
Avid Progressives like Secretary of State Hilary Clinton believe the Constitution should be a constantly changing and ‘evolving’ document. Recently the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision which allows U.S. corporations to give financial support to individual candidates in our election process. Before the ink could dry U.S. Senator from Massachusetts John Kerry cried foul and threatened to amend the U.S. Constitution. This slippery attitude regarding the Constitution is right out of the Progressives playbook, as they believe the Constitution is a growing thing and should be able to ‘evolve’ to their liking.
In volume 1 of the CONSTITUTIONALIST TODAY, Al Maurer brilliantly wrote in his article called PROGRESSIVSM: “The progressives believed that society evolves along some path of historical development and that governments should evolve as well. Ever hear a modern Democrat say that we need “a Constitution for the 21st century?” I have. This belief they hold in common with Marxism; that society is developing toward a utopia and that human nature itself evolves over time toward perfection.”
It is my belief that the more slippery and flexible we allow the Constitution to become the more we lose our societal foundation and backbone. This is why liberal leaning people are constantly administering a water torture to it and to us. They want to chip away and erode the document and they want us to relent from defending it. The American church has a similar problem with Postmodernism as this philosophy seeks to get church leaders to pick and choose Bible passages they want to apply and Exacto knife out the ones they are uncomfortable with from the Bible. I will not make a case for the sacredness of the Constitution as I would for the Holy Scriptures, but we have been blessed as a nation with this fine foundational document.
As a pastor for more that twenty five years I have seen this deadly evolution take place in the American church. Years ago people were instructed to make their decisions and form their values based on facts and evidence, then shape their beliefs accordingly and act or behave out of that basis. Today in politics and church life people are urged to craft their thinking based on their experience and feelings, then go straight to behaviors and let their belief’s ‘evolve’ out of this post-modern mindset. What is overlooked? I tell you it is truth that has been maligned. George Barna in his book THINK LIKE JESUS wrote: “The most important and fundamental principle conveyed is that God is the essence of truth. Everything that emanates from Him-words, plans, laws, judgment, blessings, is a manifest of moral truth. Given His nature, truth is as aspect of perfection and holiness. He is the source of truth and the gauge of truth. The laws, rules and commands listed in the Bible give us the guidelines we need to comprehend and carry out moral truth.”
In politics we see people rush to amend the constitution, in the church we are seeing a slower erosion, but a definite evolution just the same. Not all that long ago I was preaching out of the book of Romans the first chapter where I referred to God as the creator. After the service a concerned deacon ushered me into the office and asked me if I really believed that God was the creator and that evolution was a myth. I told him I did and that as science improves I believe it will ultimately defend the creation account. He told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to change my song and sing a different tune or I would be laughed out of the church. He said: “after all we have educators who attend our church.” It might seem old fashioned to hold the line and hold to the belief that the Bible is inspired, authoritative and reliable, but I believe it is the rock solid foundation that will keep our lives, and our culture from eroding away. I see no need to bend the Bible to adapt to psychology, philosophy or so-called scientific research. I don’t think we need a chiropractic adjustment to the times; we need to adjust our lives to the Bible. It doesn’t need to change, we do!
Post-modernism is an attack on truth, Jesus said: “Thy Word is Truth” (John 17:17). The issue at stake is truth; the post-modern way of thinking dissolves truth into ‘whatever’. When you are talking with a post-modern they will use the same words you say right back at you but their meaning is different. They will act like they value and respect the word truth, but to a postmodern truth is not ever absolute, it is subjective, and it is ‘whatever’ they want it to be (Moral relativism). The last thing they want to be is offensive and politically incorrect so to a post-modern truth is like Play-dough, you can shape it into ‘whatever’ you want it to be, it is their convenient truth. They think that seeing truth as an immovable and unalterable mountain is way too inconvenient. Using this line of thought they would evolve the Ten-commandments into the Ten suggestions.
The Bible was at one time called the ‘Canon’ which means measuring standard or stick. Let me ask how can you do good construction with a measuring stick that has floating or sliding numbers on its side, or if it is elastic and expands and contracts with the temperature? Ever wonder why we rarely ever hear of a church exercising church discipline? After all who are we to say what is right and wrong in this pluralistic culture? Wonder why we regularly see pastors and church leaders fail to live up to their ordination or marriage vows? This is not the church ‘growing-up’ this is moral erosion because of this deadly evolution. I’d love to hear a “thus say’s the Lord”, or an “it is written”, again.
In the last church I served, I was confronted about the way I prayed and instructed as to what I could pray about and what I could not. I was told that I could no longer publically pray for our troops serving in Iraq, but that I could pray for the Iraqi people. You see, from a post-modernists standpoint national boundaries get in the way, and that we didn’t’ have the moral authority to call anything evil let alone confront it. I wanted to beat the snot out of this leader, but then I realized he was only acting out of his identity. He was seeing himself as a defender of ‘whatever’ (moral relativism) and felt that I was in the wrong to be so ‘judgmental’. He felt that all religions are valid, and that I was way too black and white/ right vs. wrong to claim that we were doing something right like liberating the people who had come under a tyrant.
What the progressive movement is to politics post- modernism is to the American church. My hope for all of us is a secure identity; as Americans do everything you can to preserve and defend the U.S. Constitution, regularly give God thanks for giving us a godly national heritage, and this fine foundational document. As a human being, I urge you to build your life on truth, take God at His Word, and believe it is Truth, rock-solid and reliable. Because, when you base your life on this fact, you can believe that God really does love you and then realize His love makes you secure.
Sid Huston is the host of
The SYI Show
Heard daily on 100.7 KGFT
“Christian Talk Radio”
www.sidhuston.com
