Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my third episode. Tonight we are going to focus on morality and the postmodern dilemma. I think this discussion is important to have when laying the groundwork for understanding the Christian worldview. Unlike the metaphysical evidence for God, morality is accessible to everyone and plays a fundamental role in the choices of our daily lives.
What is morality? The dictionary defines morality as principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Many of us have had some sense of morality built into us as far back as we can remember. In fact, a strong grounding in morality can be retained by treating others how you wish to be treated. Having a built-in morality is not the problem. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is not the real issue.
The problem is understanding why you should abide by that morality. If individuals in a nation do not know why, then the nation will degenerate into chaos. You see, there is no reason to keep a code of conduct framed on moral principles if you do not have a sovereign ideal. A sovereign ideal is an example of moral and ethical perfection that has complete priority over everyone and everything in your life. You don’t violate your principles because you are striving to satisfy the sovereign ideal.
That idea may sound a bit totalitarian – like you don’t have freedom. But the irony is, if your sovereign ideal is anything or anyone other than Christ, you are very likely to fall victim to a dictator. Let me elaborate. Let’s say you have a nation that is founded on Judeo-Christian values and integrates those values into their code of laws. In addition to the values, your nation declares as part of the law that its Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. So the individuals who framed the law had a sovereign ideal in God, and the individuals who come after them have a sovereign ideal in the Constitution which is based on the values of God.
Under this model the United States flourished into the world’s foremost superpower. In addition to prosperity, the U.S. has enjoyed the highest degree freedom of any nation in history. That’s what you get when you make Christ your sovereign ideal. But what happens when time passes and enough generations are removed from biblical teaching? Your people begin to think that they’ve advanced beyond the framers of the law (and the God upon whom the law is based). They no longer believe it is necessary for them to retain a sovereign ideal of moral and ethical perfection. Then the people begin asking why they must follow this code of conduct at all. If we are beyond the framers of the law, why don’t we rewrite our law so that it best suits our desires? Enter postmodernism.
Postmodernism can be summed up as the idea that there is no absolute truth and that everything is subject to an infinite number of interpretations. There is no moral or ethical perfection because perfection depends on each individual’s opinion on what is good. Postmodernism fails right out of the gate because it is a self-refuting worldview. It is making an absolute statement that there are no absolutes. In addition to the logical inconsistency, postmodernism is not very pragmatic. How do you structure a civilization where each individual’s interpretation of reality is considered equal and each individual is different from the next? Political correctness rules the day and creates endless conflict – degenerating into chaos, every single time.
Anyone with common sense can see that postmodernism does not work. So why is our culture slipping further and further down that slope? It is because of the loss of a sovereign ideal. If Christ is not your ideal who you strive to live up to, then something else has to be. There is no such thing as being totally free. You are only free to select who or what you serve. Even individuals who claim to march to their own beat are simply slaves to their impulses. In postmodernism, the only way to satisfy your human need for community is to join up with a group. The group’s identity becomes the sovereign ideal which leads to you disagreeing with anything and everything that conflicts with the group’s identity. In some sense you become a sheep, no longer thinking for yourself.
Once group identity and tribalism have had enough time to fester, the unity of your nation begins to break apart. Groups turn into factions and people become divided – the nation is plagued by inner conflict becomes weak. The loss of security caused by a weak nation leads to fear within of attacks from without. Then a leader rises to power who claims to be able to unify the nation and make it strong again. Since the people are living in fear, they begin to submit to anything the leader desires in trade for security. That leader becomes the sovereign ideal and then becomes the dictator. This type of progression is inevitable which is why we’ve seen it repeat itself ever since people have been forming societies.
But let us for a moment entertain the idea of individuals being and living exactly the way they want to. Person A decides what he thinks is right or wrong, offensive or not offensive, and goes out into the world expecting the world to abide by his position. Then he runs into person B, who finds person A’s views to be very offensive and hurtful. Person B accuses person A of hate speech, and person A loses his job. Along comes person C, who conflicts with both person A and person B. Since person C has so many triggers to his sensitivity, he has to create a zone where he won’t be offended, or a “safe space.” Before long all persons are stuck in a position where they don’t know what’s okay and what’s not okay. This tension leads to increased division between the persons.
And there’s something else: a person seeking to normalize their behavior will claim they are a victim of hate speech or oppression. This self-victimization leads to society’s acceptance of ideas and behaviors that are not based on truth. This is a very slippery slope because a dangerous precedent is created. How does a society know when to stop giving in to each person’s desired morality?
Because of this refusal to infringe on a person’s sensitivities, children are being expected to make major decisions about how they want their life to be. At such a young age, a child should not be responsible for those types of decisions – the parents should be responsible. If the family loses its structure, then the primary vehicle by which morality is taught will be gone.
Many people would say that discounting any individual’s opinion causes that person to lose freedom. But let me ask you this, would you let just anyone watch over your kids for a week? Or your dog? Your answer to that is no because you understand that not everyone has a good sense of right and wrong. The same danger comes along when allowing individuals to elect leaders who can change laws. But you can’t do away with elections because then you lose your democracy and that is a fast-track to dictatorship or dissolution of the nation.
So how do we as a nation correct the course and preserve peace, stability, and prosperity?
The solution to these problems is to maintain and protect a free market of ideas. When an idea is presented, it should be tested by the criteria of truth. If the idea does not pass as a valid truth then it is discarded.
So let me start by presenting this idea: the best way to prevent degeneration into chaos and the rise of a dictator is to make Christ your sovereign ideal. Committing your life to the principles of Christ protects you from becoming a slave to someone else. A minority within a nation can preserve the nation and guide it back to prosperity using Christ’s teachings. That’s why Christ commands us to be salt (to preserve that which is good) and light (to guide the world) in his Sermon on the Mount.
You much teach each person to voluntarily trust in Christ as their sovereign ideal for what’s good and what’s evil. Your best chance of peace through stability is to live by Christ’s teachings yourself. Show others how blessed the Christian life is by making it your own life. Remember, the nation is made up of individuals, and the solution to chaos begins and ends with individuals.
It has been said that hard times give rise to strong people, and strong people bring about good times. Then good times give rise to weak people, and weak people bring about hard times. The western world is not above this cycle and if we don’t remain watchful – hard times will likely return to us.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at http://www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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