Udo W. Middelmann has written a book entitled The Market Driven Church, subtitled The Worldly Influence of Modern Culture on the Church in America. Having grown up in post-W.W.II Europe, he brings a fresh perspective to a discussion of the church in particular, and our postmodern, post-Christian culture in general.
Chapter 3 is titled Lemonade with Too Much Water. Middelmann discusses the many changes within society and the church, and suggests that where the church once influenced society, the reverse has now become the predominant modality. After pointing out problems both on the left and right, liberal and conservative, and positing a religion that has become more personal than public ("The personalization of Christianity weakens the emphasis on the need to bow before the reality of God, our sin, and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.") And then these very timely comments:
Our age has largely replaced real discussions of theological, philosophical, and cultural content with "personal" testimony, anecdotal experience, and private views.
and this:
External factors have also contributed to the decline in the holding of truth. Even agreement that we have the Word of God in the Bible does not prevent modern notions of what is true from doing great harm. One of these is the modern concept of democracy, which has affected our understanding of what is true. Once it was held that submitting all matters to the consent of the governed required an acceptance of a corresponding responsibility by the voters. They must be critical, informed, moral, and accountable. Where this is not the case, democracy will no longer bring an educated and moral consent. Law will follow a mathematical win/lose situation. Numbers can win a count, but not always an argument.Majorities do not by necessity have moral integrity. They only tell us the size, not the character, of the followers. The majority/minority relation tells us something numerical only. Without an outside definition of what is good, right, and beautiful, democracy will only indicate what is more or less accepted. In the end, what separates the minority from the acceptable is a matter of numbers, not greater wisdom, moral rectitude, etc.
I think Mr. Middelmann has hit the nail directly upon the head. I think we can, in light of the current state of our country, make more than a few inferences from and about our culture.
- We have become less interested in knowing the truth about issues than in winning the day with whatever argument we have chosen to accept.
- Many of us accept and hold to a position not because we've studied it and found it to be true and in accord with reality but because it "feels right" to us.
- We have as a society become increasingly crass and mean-spirited about those with whom we disagree.
- The people we choose to serve us in public office are increasingly less concerned with issues truth, of right and wrong, but are more interested in remaining in office for personal power and pursuit of their own private agenda.
- In these pursuits, numbers suit them better than do the correctness of their issues
- Likewise, an aroused but basically ignorant public is more easily swayed by the use of rhetoric.
Ron Kohlin
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