A couple of days after I wrote “Made Even More Aware“, The Straits Times featured various responses to the AWARE Saga in “Thoughts on the Aware saga” on Saturday, 9 May. Whilst I accept that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, it saddened me to read one particular response from a Christian.
Via SMS, a certain Leonard Lee declared, “I am glad that other religious leaders voiced their objections against the new Aware’s tactics. I am glad to see these Christian rightists isolated. I cannot see how they can claim their actions were not motivated by their religious beliefs.” He goes on to say, “I am a Christian myself, and I feel religion is a private matter and there is no monopoly of what constitutes ‘correct’ values.”
Here, we see how post-modern thought has infiltrated the Christian mind. Religion, or in Mr Lee’s case, Christianity, is deemed a private matter. In other words … “I have my beliefs and you have yours. I won’t disturb you and you are not to disturb me.” This is both pluralism and tolerance in action! What Christians like him would say is, “Let’s not impose our Christian beliefs and values on others.” If that is to be applied across the board, where does that leave the declaration of the good news of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom?
As if that is not bad enough, the post-modern Christian feels no one religion has any “monopoly of what constitutes ‘correct’ values”. That is another post-modern tenet strongly stated – that truth is what you believe it to be. To these, truth is relative and not absolute! If a Christian can hold on to such ideology, how can he then declare with conviction that Jesus is the Truth? And that no one can go to the Father except through Him, and Him alone?
If there is a Mr Lee, I won’t be far wrong to conclude that there are many other Christians like him too. Problem is, these are hard to spot in the church services and in cell meetings. They sing the same songs with arms lifted high. But post-modern Christians will result in a post-modern Church – boldly declaring the Truth in Jesus Christ, yet tolerating, even embracing, the truths as defined by the world around them. And if anyone dares challenge them, be prepared to be labelled as “Christian rightists”.
[...] After watching the short 1-min clip, my stomach churned. Yes, like I said, it disturbed me. I have read about the Emergent Church before, but it didn’t register quite as strongly. I thought it was just a movement in the West. But this afternoon, it hit me … we are beginning to see these values being upheld in Singapore. Definitely in society – how about the church? From the recent AWARE Saga, we saw how Christians were divided over how some issues were to have been handled; out of which, we discovered the presence of postmodern Christians. I reflected on these points in my posts Made Even More Aware and Post-Modern Christians. [...]
By: Has the Emergent Church Arrived in Singapore? « One Day At A Time on June 14, 2009
at 9:42 pm