Saturday, July 10, 2004
(11:21 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Moral Relativism
So apparently "mushy doctrine among the younger generation ranks as the No. 1 crisis facing American Christendom today". The mushy doctrines in question? First and foremost among those things that are "fundamentally antithetical to the creed" are "[t]he forces of moral relativism and 'tolerance' [that] have gotten to them in a big way." I believe that the "scare quotes" around "tolerance" function in the same way as those that customarily adorn "gay rights" in conservative discourse -- a way of discrediting the very existence of the concept. This is unique to conservative discourse, since scare quotes are usually deployed to say, for example, that the "tolerance" in evidence isn't real tolerance. Anyway, punctuation issues aside, here are a few more of the pernicious ideas floating around in these kids' heads:
slightly more than half of all U.S. teens also believe that Jesus committed sins while he was on earth. About 60% agree that enough good works will earn them a place in heaven, in part reflecting a Catholic view, but also flouting Protestantism's central theme of salvation only by grace. About two-thirds say that Satan is just a symbol of evil, not really a living being. Only 6% of all teens believe that there are moral absolutes--and, most troubling to evangelical leaders, only 9% of self-described born-again teens believe that moral truth is absolute.Obviously this is a big concern -- but has anyone ever noticed how seldom "absolute moral truth" seems to make any kind of significant difference? No one preaching about "absolute moral truh" ever says that reaching out and helping the poor in every possible way is an absolute obligation of Christians. No, it's always bullshit like "it's absolutely wrong to smoke." This article is a case in point; the only concrete example of morality is as follows:
"When you ask even Christian kids, 'How can you say A is true as well as B, which is the antithesis of A?,' their typical response is, 'I'm not sure how it works, but it works for me,'" says George Barna, president of the Ventura, Calif.-based research company. "It's personal, pragmatic and fairly superficial."
Only 10% of Christian teens believe that music piracy is morally wrong, according to a recent Barna survey, not all that different from the 6% of their non-Christian peers who feel the same way.The stupid kids' moral relativism leads them to behave in ways that prevent large corporations from maximizing their profits! Even worse, their love and tolerance may well spell doom:
Then extrapolate the situation to other possible big-picture results. Nearly 60% of evangelical Christian teenagers now say that all religious faiths teach equally valid truths, according to Mr. McDowell. It's bad enough that they seem to have been co-opted by relativism from within our culture and even from within the church and family. But it's even more disconcerting to realize that we're relying on this generation for the future defense of Judeo-Christian civilization against the highly motivated forces of militant Islam.This stuff is published by the Wall Street Journal.
I apologize to Anthony for pushing his post further down the page. It is accessible through the "recent posts" bar to the right, under the heading, "It's a good topic."
