I wrote last week about radical individualism and promised a follow up. Here is the follow up:
Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a profound shift in the thinking of our culture, a shift away from an objective, God-centered understanding of reality and of the individual’s place within it (a “Judeo-Christian” World View), to a view of reality that is centered and focused on the subjective, the personal and the private world of the individual. This highly individualistic perspective on reality is sometimes labeled “radical individualism,” and it has been embraced, to varying degrees, by many in America. As a result, it is commonplace today to believe that goodness and truth are not to be found outside of us, in religion say, but within.
Among other things, this has resulted in the major reordering of sexual morality in society often called the “sexual revolution.” Sexual morality is no longer a matter of conformity to an external standard set by God. Sex is now self-expression, part of a person’s very “identity.” Being sexually moral means conformity to oneself, not to rules. It is about authenticity. Thus, the revolution.
Radical individualism has also brought about another revolution in our culture, a new understanding of truth. Truth, for most people today, is not a shared understanding of reality as it once was, but is personal. Each person has their own truth, and what is most important about an individual’s truth is that it is authentic to them.
Radical individualism has no place in the Church, and I would like to say that we Christians have been unaffected by it, but that would not be true. Although we see clearly enough the changes it has brought to society, and are appalled by them, we Christians are often unaware of just how much we too have been affected by the larger society’s shift away from a Judeo-Christian world view.
The radical individualism of our society has caused many Christians to become uncertain about the nature or importance of sexual purity. To the extent that Christians have to some degree bought into the sexual revolution, it is not because they have carefully studied the Scriptures and come to new conclusions about sex, but because they have, again to some degree, bought into the thoroughly unbiblical idea that if sex is consensual, committed, and “loving,” then it’s okay. Today, even committed Christians sometimes hesitate to call extra-marital consensual sex a sin—because even Christians are not always entirely sure that something that feels so right could actually be wrong. That certainly explains why so many young Christian couples are already living together before they even see their pastor about a wedding! Think about that, though. Living together means they are not even hiding it! Not even from their own parents! Lately, attitudes toward homosexuality have followed a similar path. Deep down many Christians suspect that the sincerity of homosexual lovers justifies—perhaps even sanctifies—their conduct. The results in churches have been embarrassing, often painful and are proof that our culture has rubbed off on us too much.
But as many problems as the sexual revolution has brought to Christian homes and churches, there is something worse about radical individualism than that. Just as radical individualism teaches that people should be free from being told who they can love or how, it also teaches that people should be free from being told what to believe. For the Church, this is actually a far more corrosive, far more ubiquitous, and far more consequential aspect of radical individualism than the sexual revolution.
Radical individualists will not believe what they are told simply on the authority of the one who is speaking. Truth founded like that on authority they call dogma, and dogma is bad. Authentic, grown-up people do not believe something simply because they are told to believe it. They will believe only what is corroborated by their own experience and feelings and sense of truth. Believing something because you are told to believe it, rather than because it seems right to you, is the opposite of authentic. Idolatry is the most grievous sin of the Christian; believing dogma is the most grievous sin of the radical individualist.
But what is the Christian Faith if not dogma? We believe what God says not because we deep down agree with it but because it is God who said it. Dogma does not come from within us, but from without, and it changes us. Dogma does not mean blind, stupid beliefs, it means beliefs that are so central and so certain that they are no longer debatable, and so important they must be passed on. Dogma should not be rejected because we don’t agree with it. We should change what we think until we do agree with it! “Jesus is Lord” is dogma. “God raised Him from the dead” is dogma. “Given and shed for you” is dogma. To reject dogma is to reject Christ!
Because it teaches that people cannot be told what to think—they must find the truth for themselves—the effect of radical individualism on the church has been particularly catastrophic. Christians have become uncertain about dogmatic truth. They may wonder whether Jesus is really the only way to the Father (because so many people sincerely don’t think so). They may wonder whether the Word and the Church really are more important for our lives and the lives of our children than happiness, security, and money (because again, so many people sincerely don’t think so).
Christians have become wary of dogma even in how they raise their kids. Many Christians were raised, and then went on to raise their own children, with some kind of an idea like this: “Religion shouldn’t be forced on children. Religion is something they should choose when they are old enough to decide for themselves.” Now, most Christians would never come out and say that. More typically, what happens is they simply don’t teach their children about Christ and the Kingdom at all. In this way they reduce the Word of God from dogmatic Truth—something so central and so sure that it is beyond debate and must be passed down—to something people can choose if it suits them. What accounts for that? It’s not that they didn’t care about their children. It’s that they too much had adopted this new view of truth, that it is something personal and private, something that, to be authentic, you must choose.
Almost half the children baptized in LCMS churches quit the church altogether before adulthood. That’s why we’re not growing. Take cheer, I guess. Our denomination is better than most. Sometimes it’s because these kids grow up and are persuaded by the culture to reject a dogmatic faith. There’s a lot of pressure on young people to do that. But often enough it’s because they were never given a dogmatic faith in the first place. Instead, they were given a faith they could choose if it suited them and, apparently, it didn’t suit them. Quite possibly their parents had the same kind of faith. Our radical individualistic culture applauds that kind of parenting. So does the devil.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m not writing this in the hope of changing the nation. “Let the dead bury their own dead,” Jesus said. Let others do that. I’m concerned for the Church, that the nation and culture not change us too much.
James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas
First Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) 