This is His World

Coming back to this blog after a week of camping – no mobile, no wifi, just us and the elements – it is tempting to dive back into the meaty part of the argument about the Intolerance of Tolerance. But I’ve been given the chance to step back and reflect on what to do with all the thoughts that are wrestling around in my head after reading Carson’s excellent critique. There’s a good deal of frustration and outright anger, as well as fear, about where our culture is heading and what that might mean for Christians in Australia.

I found in particular that Carson’s chapter on Tolerance, Democracy and Majoritarianism really opened my eyes to the fact that modern, liberal democracy is not the friend of Christianity in the way we often think it is: ‘it has the potential for becoming as tyrannous as any other regime, if it begins to think that the systems and structures of democracy are neutral and independent of any greater allegiance’. This is a scary thought! Democracy won’t protect our religious freedom if it rubs up against other ascendant moral agendas. But is this what God wants for me – to be fearful and consequently belligerent and scathing in criticism? To specialise in moral outrage? This seems to be the path that many on the political right (especially in the US) have taken, and it does commend the Lord Jesus. After all, the old tolerance has its roots in the character of God and in the Christian ethic of love for our enemies.  

Carson’s concluding Ten Words are a helpful encouragement on what to do with all our fears. As Christians we need to be valiant for truth, preserving the place of truth in our own minds and in public discourse. As an aside, I found the discussion in chapter six about the concept of evil so interesting, because it caused me to evaluate my own way of ‘branding’ people’s actions. I think I am prone to label certain actions as ‘insane’; rather than to call them what they actually are, which is evil. We should be brave enough to preserve that terminology because that’s how the Bible describes human nature - as long as we remember that we are all tarred with the same brush!!

We should also be ready to call our society out on its assumptions and inconsistencies. I love that Carson reminds us at this point, however, that the gospel is paramount. Forging a track for our culture back to the ‘old tolerance’ is not what we are about primarily. We are about Jesus Christ. We are strangers in this world as we live for Him and proclaim Him. And as people come to Him they themselves will become ‘salt in a decaying world, light in a dark world’. The reality is that this may or may not turn the tide. But if it doesn’t – if public perception continues to view Christianity as ‘intolerant’, we must be ready to suffer. I find this such a difficult call – when I read about the disciples actually rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be identified with Jesus and suffer in His name (Acts 5:41). Would I, do I, react in this way? I certainly don’t feel capable of that in myself. But I also trust that if God were to bring us to that point, He would also provide the strength to bear up and the grace to rejoice in persecution.

Now, for some reason I like to finish all my blogs with lines from Colin Buchanan songs! Here’s one that I find reassuring in the face of the strange and uncertain times we live in, and that brings us back to a childlike trust in the sovereignty and wisdom of God:

               

You might have seen bad things happening on the TV news

You might be worried ‘bout the world, and wonder what’ll happen to you

Put your faith in God alone, ‘cos He’s still sitting on His mighty throne

               

 Because the Lord is King

He’s gonna look after everything, everything

The Lord is King

He’s gonna look after everything, every single thing in this world

‘Cos this is His world  

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls aged 7, 5 and 3, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre. 

Tolerance and Freedom

It was many years ago, during an intense discussion sitting around a bush campfire, that my beloved older sister brought me to tears when she admitted that she thought that I (along with all Christians) was ‘smug and arrogant’ because I claimed to know the truth. Choking back sobs, I tried to explain that the truth didn’t come from me – it was revealed in the Bible. I wasn’t claiming any superior worthiness – simply believing what God had said. Although at one stage my sister herself had thrown her lot in with Christians, it appeared she had ‘moved on’. The Bible, she said, was no longer relevant. I now look back and see that she had imbibed a fair shot of postmodernism and come out with a worldview that drew many of its moral assumptions from Christianity but considered itself to be progressive. My sister was interested in spirituality – but not in a form as traditional as Christianity. What she valued most was her individual freedom – the freedom to create a private spirituality, eclectically plucking fruit from whatever spiritual tree was attractive and within reach.

  

Reading Chapters 2 & 3 of The Intolerance of Tolerance has helped me to distill that the different understandings of tolerance (the old and the new) are rooted in very different cultural and philosophical contexts. In the past the limits of toleration were worked out within the overarching framework of a dominant and shared moral vision, with the general purpose of toleration being the common good. Our own age no longer has that shared framework of belief. Individualism has taken hold – the common good is now the servant of individual freedom. Christian thought of course upholds the value of the individual as made in God’s image, but the knowledge of God’s love for us in Christ frees us to serve others. Our chief thought as Christians is ‘How can I serve God and others?'. But, unmoored from its basis in Christian doctrine, our culture has now elevated the rights of the individual to the point where the question is no longer, ‘Is this good for our community as a whole?’, but ‘Why shouldn’t I have the right to express myself in this way?’.

It’s great to read Carson writing so frankly about the fact that subscribers to the humanist/secularist point of view seem to ride the high horse of superiority themselves – assuming that they are enlightened and have moved past draconian religious ideas. They are for progress, tolerance, fairness, open-mindedness! Reading this week about the decision of the Victorian state government to axe Special Religious Instruction in schools is a case in point. The group which has been pushing for this is called ‘Fairness in Religion in Schools’ – pretty ironic considering this is a group which seems so bent on attacking Christianity in particular! It’s hard to understand what exactly was ‘unfair’ about SRI. I guess their campaign is based on the opinion that matters of faith have no place in public education, and therefore it is ‘unfair’ to allocate class time to them. Apparently, Victorian students will be using the time previously devoted to SRI to be learning about ‘how to build healthy relationships, understand global cultures, ethics and traditions and to prevent family violence.’ What platform of belief will this ethical education be based on? Many assume the secularist viewpoint offers a morally neutral standpoint from which to look down and judge other less enlightened souls, but in fact, Carson argues humanism/atheism/secularism has its own set of dogmas and limits to what it will tolerate.

Carson argues that it is this chimera of ‘neutrality’ that has allowed many to import their own political agenda into the larger consciousness. For better or worse, movements of the last century have worked to bend the Western moral consciousness to their own view point. Take feminism as an example – from being seen as second-class citizens, it now appears to be self-evident to us that women are equal and have the right to benefit from as many freedoms as men. It is difficult, however, when moral assumptions come up against each other, as is now happening. Do we stand up for feminism – and therefore condemn Islamic nations that deny women’s rights? What about the belief that all cultures are equally good? How can we impose our moral vision on another nation? And what about when women use their rights to overpower the rights of one less powerful (e.g. an unborn child)? Whose individual rights should we champion? What are we prepared to tolerate and on what grounds?

I hope we are all encouraged to defend the Bible as the best way to navigate this treacherous moral landscape, and not to be ashamed of allowing it to renew our minds so we can have the insight to understand the complexities of these questions.

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls aged 7, 5 and 3, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre. 

  

The Intolerance of Tolerance by Don Carson

I have a complicated relationship with the ABC. On one hand I love it – but there is one program which never fails to get me really incensed. It’s QandA – does anyone else feel this way? No matter what issues are open for discussion, if there is a Christian on the panel, at some point in the show they will have the accusation of ‘intolerance’ thrown at them, usually followed by a round of applause.

Reading Don Carson’s short critique of the concept of ‘tolerance’ in Western culture, The Intolerance of Tolerance, has been such a relief. Carson articulates so precisely the difficulty of the Christian position in relation to the philosophy and morality of our contemporary Western culture. At the moment it is as though in any given debate a Christian can argue so deftly, so winsomely, and yet simply be palmed off as a hater, an intolerant creep who just can’t stand the idea that people are different from them. Take the marriage equality debate – in trying to think wisely about this issue in regard to the common good, many Christians have counselled that we should avoid changing the definition of marriage. But according to some, this position (based of course on the teachings of the Bible) should not be tolerated. It is a position of hatred, it is discrimination.

I for one feel completely mortified by the idea of being labelled as a bigot. After all, I’m a follower of Jesus, the one who tells me to love my enemies, who reached out to the marginalised and the outcasts. How can anyone think that attitude has anything to do with me?

Of course, the whole concept of ‘tolerance’ has taken on a new life in the last 50 years or so. While the word used to mean putting up with things you don’t agree with, it now means agreeing that everything is ok!! Our society seems to have a mania to approve of everything, in case, heaven forbid, someone is offended. And yet, don’t we still revile certain behaviours? (One might argue that the practice of paedophilia, for example, is even more taboo than ever). In his explanation of ‘plausibility structures’, Carson argues that because of our highly diverse culture, we tend to hold on to a small number of beliefs more tenaciously, seemingly because without them, the whole fabric of society might fly apart. This has really helped me to understand where we are in Western culture at present. The idea of ‘tolerance’ has become almost the number one plausibility structure by which to make a moral judgment. This leads to people claiming: ‘I’m only intolerant of intolerance!’ (like a panellist on QandA once remarked to Peter Jensen). In other words, Christians are intolerant, therefore it’s ok to discriminate against them and try to silence them, but not anyone else. The moral paradoxes just continue to mount up, and as Carson states, it is ‘intellectually debilitating’ for our society because it hinders the free exchange of ideas and the ability to think deeply about moral questions.

Carson’s examples in Chapter Two were confronting but very close to home. Sydney had a similar incident recently when several books were banned from use in SRE classes. How strange that they didn’t actually ban the Bible – after all, that’s where the ideas come from. But that would be obvious discrimination! It is hard to imagine the NSW government making a similar demand on Islamic SRE teachers. So it’s ok to teach the Bible as a historical religious document, as long as you keep your opinions about right and wrong to yourself and don’t try to say they are relevant to anyone in the present day? As Carson says, this is a trivialisation of faith. And usually, as Carson points out, the target of this kind of officious meddling is the Christian faith.

Of course, it is no surprise that the world hates us, since it hated Jesus first. But we need to continually be ready to expose the contradictions and moral bankruptcy of our society. Actually I was pleasantly surprised by the ABC the other week, when Media Watch exposed the one-sided media coverage of the marriage equality debate! I will keep watching the ABC, and as much as QandA irritates me, I applaud the Christians who courageously sit on the panel, endure the hostility and keep on speaking the truth in love.

I hope Carson’s critique is sparking some new thoughts for you, and maybe even some debate! Keep reading and stay tuned in the coming weeks…

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls aged 7, 5 and 3, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre.