Maybe it’s because I grew up in small-town Iowa, but I remember that there was a time when there were “absolutes”. You believed in God, or at least acted like you did. You went to church every Sunday, because that was what you were expected to do (unless you were seriously sick). You stayed married, whether you loved each other or not, because of the children. You respected teachers, and if your kid got in trouble at school, that was just the beginning of the kid’s problems when they got home. You shared what you had, without even having to be asked, because that was just what you did. You took care of your flag, and when it got torn or worn, you disposed of it properly. Those were “absolutes”, and you were looked down upon if you did anything to violate those absolutes.
But then something called “situation ethics” came along and everything changed. Church
people stopped thinking twice about having “Playboy” in their house. Going to church
became optional, depending on whether or not there was something else you want to do.
Marriages broke up at a rate of nearly 50% and multiple re-marriages became sanctioned in
the church. If children had trouble at school, it was the teacher’s fault or the school’s fault or
parent’s didn’t know nor care about the trouble at all. We no longer even blushed at our
greed; we can’t afford it right now, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t run right back to it
as quickly as we can when this recession is over. And patriotism became something for
stores and restaurants to pedal with “20% off” promotions. The “absolutes” that demanded
something of us, were exchanged for the “situational ethics” that allowed us to do whatever
we wanted.
It therefore shouldn’t be of any surprise to us that the church all over the country is
struggling, regardless of what name or denomination it might be. Because the church still
believes in absolutes. We still believe in God, and we believe that God expects certain things
of us, like love our neighbor, whether it is convenient or not. We still believe that hatred of
another person, and language that assaults another human being is wrong in the eyes of
God. We even still believe, that morality is important and should be discussed and clarified
and thought about. The church is struggling in a society that no longer believes in absolutes,
and therefore believes that the church is irrelevant.
So, what do we do? Well, we can give up our absolutes, but that doesn’t seem like a very good
idea to me. Other churches have tried this, stressing that what they are there to do is to
make you happy. But that doesn’t seem like the best path to me. Instead, I believe that we
must keep our absolutes and pray that we can share those absolutes with a society that is
wandering aimlessly toward nothing. We don’t have to be long-faced and unpleasant about
it, but we must help people to understand that there are some things that we believe, and we
will not move from them.

I’ll see you in church

~Roy~