It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Carl Trueman. He’s not a household name or anything — he’s a professor at a small college — but I’ve always liked to hear what he has to say. Especially when he makes my point for me much better than I.
In my ramblings, I’ve often come to the conclusion that without a foundation for moral truth, we humans will wander about condemning first this, then that. That things that were completely acceptable at one time will fall out of fashion and be rejected. That a morality based upon our moral preferences is one doomed to shift and eventually collapse upon itself.
And Trueman uses a couple of famous cases to prove the point in this piece in First Things.
By example, perhaps we can take a moment to look at ourselves right now. We probably think we’re in pretty good shape. We’re sensible people on a sensible path that doesn’t hurt anyone. We’re reasonable, We’re kind. We care about the planet. We drive a Prius.
And that’s our problem. Because in 50 years, Prius owners will be known for supporting child slave labor in the Congo by creating a high demand for the cobalt required to make their cars’ batteries.
We will be condemned. Along with anyone who’s ever eaten at a McDonald’s. Because in the year 2064, everyone will believe that we cow-eaters of 2022 were not only barbaric in our blood-lust for cheeseburgers, but also the main contributors to climate change through livestock methane production.
Of course I’m being (mildly) facetious. But the reality is, you just don’t know. We all remember quite clearly the absolute adoration enjoyed by Hamilton only a few short years ago. And Harry Potter? “Huge!” is an understatement by far. And yet here we are — so silly as to entertain the faction of society that are taking the mile after the inch in condemning these recent artistic and literary institutions.
But of course, this all circles back to our rejection of an absolute truth. With everyone creating their own realities, we have no other way to go but to constantly face these shifting calls for upheaval and outrage. Perhaps this is the greatest danger of whatever system is being called for by the progressives of today’s society — that we may fall in line with them wonderfully right now, but we’ll see where we really stand in 10 years. You know — when they decide the music you love today is “problematic” and that maybe they’d better take a closer look at those with whom you associate, just to be sure you’re “trustworthy” enough to hold that job to which you are applying.
The world just can’t live that way (and ironically, I could be putting myself in danger ten years from now just by saying so). But how, then, shall we live? The words of Paul at the very end of the 12th chapter of First Corinthians come to mind: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” This is followed then by one of the most famous passages of the Bible. I will leave you with it here, but it bears much deeper thought that I should cover later. Suffice it to say for now that there is a love that conquers all of this mess, if we’d only turn to it and believe.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13