Bruce Jenner and the cultural peril of ‘feelings.’

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/readers/2015/07/18/ed-leap-danger-culture-feelings/30303603/

One of the great things about Christianity is that Christians like myself are endlessly challenged. In this modern, ever skeptical world, Christians truly have to ‘sink or swim.’ While some believers are troubled or offended by this, I say it is a gift. And I would point out that Jesus spent much of his life on earth teaching people who wouldn’t simply accept his words without question. I get the feeling he enjoyed the discussions.

The days of defending our faith to non-believers by saying ‘well, it’s true because the Bible says so,’ are long past. If they ever existed at all, that is. Those of us who believe might abide by that rule, but others aren’t so constrained. And they expect, and deserve, more from us than platitudes.

This makes us better, I think. It forces Christians to confront our own beliefs, facts, fallacies, biases, hopes, joys and failings. We don’t get a pass in popular culture, national media or academia. We have to understand history, archeology, language, ethics and all the rest in an endless attempt to try to demonstrate the truth and relevance of what we hold true to those who are unconvinced. And, by the nature of our faith, we are supposed to do it all in love. We are to love God, love man and love even those who press against us, challenging us at every turn. This is how we are to confirm, and spread, our beliefs. Not by theocratic fiat.

This is so true that I would offer a gentle warning to those in colleges, universities and even the media who try to shield their students or audiences from ideas that conflict with their own. These days the ‘trigger warnings’ on content in media, books or classroom dialogue, the banning of contentious speakers (usually from the political right) serve to offer a soft downy nest for minds young and old. But minds (like bodies) have never grown stronger by comfort, only by challenge. If you want people to have incisive minds, it is better for them to be questioned rather than coddled.

But now, perhaps, we Christians have an opportunity to simply take it easy. Because the rules for truth claims seem to have taken a downward turn. The evidence for this is Bruce, aka Caitlyn Jenner. You see, in our evolving culture, ‘facts’ are considered oppressive things. Feelings, however, are inviolable. So when former male Olympian Bruce Jenner feels like a woman, or ‘identifies’ as a woman, that’s all it takes. Suddenly, she/he is a icon of feminine glamor, splashed across magazine covers and welcomed to womanhood by no less than the President of the United States. And anyone who denies him/her is simply on ‘the wrong side of history,’ whatever that ridiculous phrase means.

The greater implications are that everyone must be accepted and embraced based on what they think, or feel, inside. As such, a suicidal person who says ‘I’m not good, I should die,’ must be speaking the truth. A racist of any stripe who sees herself or himself as fundamentally superior must have a unique inner perspective worthy of our respect. And by extension, the young woman with anorexia, who believes she is obese, cannot be denied. All truth emanates from one’s own mind.

By extension, then, who can tell me that God does not dwell in my heart? That my motivations for morality, however I live them out, are false? Who could now scoff when someone says, ‘God speaks to me every day?’ Or even, ‘catering that wedding will violate my inner conscience?’

In this evolving intellectual climate, no one can do so. My beliefs, our beliefs as Christians, suddenly take on a protected status, not subject to denial, whether they concern abortion, homosexuality or any other hot-button cultural issue. If that’s the ‘lay of the land,’ we would be mad not to use this to our advantage. It is, after all, a supporting premise of modernism. Perhaps we’ll end up in a cultural maelstrom in which feelings superseded all tradition, legislation or litigation, with a federal Dept. of Feelings to arbitrate it all.

However, I sure hope not. Because I’d prefer the give and take of genuine inquiry, the tough question, the freedom to argue and the liberty to boldly disagree, to the mental mush that would result from shielding and ensconcing the whims of every individual’s subjective perceptions.

At least, I feel like I would!

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