Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1997 - Rparchives.org

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA 81
Christianity is objectionable to the postmodernist, on the other hand, simply
because it claims to be true. The real question is not about what is true and right,
but what is liked and chosen. As a result, society is fragmented into competing
tribes and special interest groups.
What holds things tenuously together is not a common pursuit of truth and
meaning, but a political correctness that anathematizes intolerance of any free
choice. From the regionalization of Canada following the 1997 federal election to
the widespread torching of black churches in the South, many recent events force
us to confront the frailty of this arrangement.
It is to those who are simultaneously perpetrators and victims of this
individualistic hedonism that the church is called to minister Jesus Christ, the Truth
who sets us free indeed. Fearful withdrawal and undiscerning conformity are both
unacceptable responses on the part of God's army. Christians must struggle to
answer the same question in every age: How can cultural trends be seen as
opportunities for meaningful outreach and ministry
The family - the incubator of morality and healthy relationships - has been hit
hard by the postmodernist spirit. The teenager stuffing her freshly born baby into
the trash can in the girl's restroom before rejoining her friends at the high school
prom and requesting a song to dance to is the stark epiphany of contemporary
ethics, postmodernism's manger scene. Even as it disgusts him, it poignantly
captures the dilemma of the distorted Imago Dei at the end of the second
millennium, the trousered ape. If it had been done by a professional in a licensed
facility, it would have received the determined protection of President Clinton
himself!
A few years ago, National Public Radio featured an interview with a young
Muslim convert who had been raised in an evangelical Christian home. He located
the attraction of Islam in its sense of community and its code of ethics.
Apparently, family and church had failed to provide either. While committed
Christians slowly and laboriously protect and nurture the covenant home, we must
studiously avoid alienating a generation that cannot relate, but secretly wishes it
could. The majority come from broken homes. For the rest, many were raised by
surrogates while both parents pursued fulfilling careers. They have been taught by
example that the object of a relationship is not building a home but finding sexual
gratification; the gender from which one finds it has ceased being a cause for much
concern. To our great advantage is the visibility of God's wrath and, beneath the
desperate endeavor to suppress it, the inescapable knowledge of God by those
made in His image. And Jesus still offers rest to the weary and heavy-laden.
On the issues of the day, we can lock arms with many diverse co-belligerents,
whether to the right or to the left. (And, by the way, let's not be hypocritical! We
have learned to speak loudly and clearly on abortion. Do we avoid being vocal
against racism, child and spousal abuse, pollution, sexual harassment, and the
anarchistic militia movement because we fear we will be perceived as attempting to