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Letter from AmericaA shining sunI recently went to hear Chuck Colson, the famed author of Born Again, once notorious as an insider in the political Watergate scandal. He was sent to prison. But in the midst of the maelstrom surrounding him, Chuck Colson became 'born again'. Ever since, he has been the highly regarded and influential leader of Prison Fellowship. Colson was speaking about Jonathan Edwards. In his lecture he touched on a wide variety of contemporary themes and issues that are facing evangelicals. In particular, he suggested, the drift towards moral relativism was likely to face a turnaround as a result of September 11. It's hard, was the gist of what he was saying, to swallow the idea that there is no evil in the world when you watch airplanes on suicide missions colliding into buildings containing thousands of human lives. Is he right?Are we, now embroiled in a 'war on terrorism', going to find it easier to make the case for moral truth? Who could say? Yet, as the cultural agenda in the 21st-century picks up, it is important for evangelicals to examine their assumptions once again about the prevailing secular culture. Certainly, at Yale, the university near where our church is based, there is no sign of 'postmodernism' giving up the ghost. Moral relativism is still the assumed necessary basis of tolerance. The idea, the original Christian root of tolerance, that a tolerant society is fostered by vigorous exchanges of differing view points in a search for 'the truth' is foreign, even regarded as laughably naive. Instead, free speech, while still acknowledged as an important moral obligation of a free society, is considered as requiring careful curtailment in pursuit of the bigger politically-correct agenda. In a recent release on morality and ethics to provide guidelines for Yale teachers and administrators, there is a curious 'bracketing' of free speech. Citing from memory, the relevant passage said something like 'while acknowledging the importance of free speech, we will none the less not say anything to...' and continued in the vein of the importance of respecting other religious, racial and ethnic groups. Of course, it is subtle and not in any way intended as undermining free speech, and yet the sotto voce tone appended to free speech, even if unthinkingly (especially if unthinkingly) is, with a moment's reflection, somewhat shocking for traditional (and I suppose more modernist) defenders of tolerance. What will happen next? Shall defence of traditional heterosexual marriage be tagged as hate speech (not as the legitimate expression of free speech)? Yes, the elite Ivy League looks set to follow the postmodernist agenda for some time yet. And if postmodernism is defined (allowing that 'defining postmodernism' is tantamount to a contradiction in terms) as relativism, then in the popular media postmodernism is rampant. The worldview assumptions of most major media offerings are usually decidedly morally relativist. Through the cloudsSo what did Colson mean? I think he meant two things. One, the media and the universities are controlled by ex-hippie lefties and the average man on the street is far more traditional and conservative. Two, President Bush is listening to moral advice from evangelicals. In the last year, Colson reports, the American administration has brokered a possible peace in Sudan, got $15 billion to combat AIDS in Africa, and passed a bill designed to end the trafficking of women and children in the international sex trade. None of this is morally relative, nor passively compromising to the 'spirit of the world', nor arrogantly and aggressively reactionary. It is to be commended. And surely applauded. Perhaps veteran evangelical leader Colson is right. Not only are there clouds on the horizon. There's some sun shining through them too. Josh Moody,
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