Postmodernity, the Gospel, and the World

"While global economies are converging, cultures are diverging, and the widening cultural differences are leading us into a period of conflict, inequality and segmentation." So writes David Brooks in his NY Times editorial this morning.

Part of our postmodern reality is that nation states--a modern phenomenon--will evaporate in significant ways over the coming centuries. Humanity has a tendency to unite--to tribalize--in order to protect itself, but our spheres of safety are continuing to shift from geographical regions to ideological communities. And global conflict, propaganda, and power are shifting accordingly. The most dangerous force aligned against the US today is not Russia and its hundreds of nuclear warheads. It is two dozen ideologs who live in the US, and have the knowledge to make small, deadly weapons. We are living in an era in which the walls of the world are evaporating. I now may have more in common with a 35 year old mother of two in Kenya than I do with my neighbor across the street.

Geography is becoming irrelevant. Ideology is becoming everything.

Philip Jenkins in his incredible book The Next Christendom, notes that Africa, South America, and Asia will begin to see more and more conflicts especially between Muslims and Christians, as tribal religions are abandoned for Monotheism. Secularism requires a certain kind of background to thrive, and this will not be available in such areas. But Monotheism will sweep into these cultures given the evangelical flair of both religions and their desire for worldwide propagation. As these religions enter a highly-populated third world, Islam and Christianity will conflict in bloody ways in small chaotic areas. Because of how African nations are laid out, it is horrifying to note that these conflicts will take place in uncontrollable pockets.

So what does this mean? Christians around the world need to be prepared for a new era of religious wars, and we must do what ever we can to repress it. The world is set to explode, but we must learn to love and teach our new brothers and sisters in the developing world how to love first. We must affirm always, Jesus counter-perspective which says that we are made for each other. All people are made to worship God together through eternity. Differing ideologies must not become an excuse to kill. We must find a better way in a world full of swords.

I did a study on St. Francis of Assisi who also lived at a time of great conflict between Islam and Christianity. During the Fifth Crusade, Francis decided that the best way to gain the Holy Land (if that was important at all to him...doubt it) was to go and speak to the Muslim people and share with them the good news of Christ. Francis was imprisoned and (in serving the battle torn armies) infected with an eye disease he carried for the rest of his life. But Francis had many opportunities to talk with even the highest-ranking sultans about Jesus, displaying the reality of God through his own service and willingness to suffer for the good of others. (Here is a great talk on St. Francis by Brian McLaren--scroll down to talk '1883'.)

How should Christians wage an ideological war? In the way Jesus taught. We will battle through a bold love against the force of hell. We will give when all hell can do is take. We will bless when all hell can do is curse. We will proclaim freedom when hell offers bondage. We will employ the power of God to overcome all that destroys, and in so doing we will partner with Jesus in restoring the world.

As relatively affluent Americans, we should continue to support need-based organizations that go into areas of turmoil with medicines and technology for clean water and sanitation. We should continue to fight, not Muslims, but AIDS, malnutrition, and ignorance. We need to love people where they are, and joyously serve our Muslim friends as readily as our Christian brothers and sisters. Let us love first and speak second, and not think that the good news means that someone hears four spiritual laws. The most effective missionaries in the world to come will not specialize in presenting the Gospel. They will specialize in healing the broken. They will specialize in caring for the dying, and orphans, and refugees. They will enter into the sphere put up by ideologies and show a better way through who they are, not what they say. Consider, again, Mother Teresa.

The Brooks article points out that in our new world people will begin to create bubbles around themselves. They will seek out (on their 500 channel televisions and 5 million website internet) writers and reporters who "Think like them." They will get their information from overtly biased news agencies. They will ingest only those things written or composed or directed by a good Christian/ Hindu/ Muslim/ Libertarian/ Green/ Progressive/ Idaho-ian. (The phenomenon of Fox News and Al Jezerra are perfect examples of this.) The tendency of the common person will be to seclude themselves from other ideologies, unless they need to throw a punch.

How will the gospel break through? It certainly will not come through the debates on MSNBC. It will not come through TBN and their plush golden chairs (or any other possible Christian TV network). It will not even come through on mainstream editorial pages or the university. In a postmodern world, there will be no neutral ground for the debate of ideas before the masses, and only a select few will read the opposition. Everything that is written, filmed, or composed will be biased. Everyone will know it, and they will stay in their safety zone: within their ideological community: their sphere of safety. They will trust the priests of there tribe, and venture no further.

Thus, the Gospel will thrive only when it can enter these bubbles. Jesus will be real to dead people only when we suffer for the sake of the gospel, leaving our own bubbles of comfort and entering foreign lands. The strategy is laid out in 1 Cor. 9:19-23, "Though I am free and a slave to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jew I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings."

With the exception of the strip of land between Libya and China (the 10/40 window), the Gospel is thriving in every geographical area on Earth. It is ideological pockets that are the new frontier for missionaries. Reaching them will entail Christians entering completely foreign worlds right down the street, worlds where Christianity may as well be a country on the other side of the earth. The great commission entails Christ followers entering such worlds as servants to love boldly. It is love, not well composed arguments, which is the only force on earth capable of changing the human heart.

This may even mean doing something odd like going downtown, next to a university, and buying a bowling alley. (May God bless the Atlas project.)