The Truth Project - let's be fair

I was complaining to my wife last night that Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project" seems to be very popular - among evangelicals(?) - and at the same time very out of touch with the very thing it claims to be battling: secular culture. Dell Tackett, who wrote the stuff or something, uses the story of the spies examining the land and fearing the giants in Numbers to illustrate a similar situation facing Christianity in America or in the 21st century or in culture more generally. He writes that "we live in a land filled with giants: judicial tyranny, homosexual activism, terrorism that could strike at any minute, a liberal media that seems to spin and distort everything into ugliness, rampant immorality and so on." The problem with this list is not that it names things that are not issues. The list does name at least two real issues in American social and political discourse. To me it is obvious that homosexuality and terrorism are issues in people's minds. ("Judicial tyranny", "liberal media" and "rampant immorality" are simply too vague and vast as descriptors to be counted as issues all by themselves). The problem with the list is that it says nothing about racial injustice, poverty, corrupt business practices/economics, creation care... Regardless of your opinions/positions in these debates, it seems to me to be undebatable that they are major issues in our culture; and if Focus on the Family is going to claim to be confronting head-on a battle with secular culture facing Christians then it at least needs to acknowledge things the culture is emphasizing. I am not saying FoF needs to take its cues from the culture and make the things I've just listed its top priority. It just needs to acknowledge their existence. Correct me if I'm overlooking something.

Here's the antithesis. My wife, Christine, pointed out that what you consider the "real" issues facing society or facing Christians will depend to a degree on what values you are using to determine the issues. It also depends somewhat on what constituency you are serving. So Focus on the Family may be acting in a way perfectly consistent with its core values as a Christian organization. And its organizing mission is to minister to families, and so the biggest issues or problems in culture, from its viewpoint, will be issues directly relevant to families. Christine also noted that if FoF had given as the "giants" facing culture the list I provided, that ought to be just as open to critique for its relativity to a current trend. Her point in noting the trendiness was not that trends are bad; it was just an observation that emphasizing more "social justice" type issues right now is, in fact, trendy. And those who are quick to criticize groups like FoF for pushing their agenda need to be a little more forthright about the ways they are themselves pushing an agenda. If we are unwilling to admit our own issue-prejudices then we are implicitly claiming a certain universality for view. I.e. we are saying "My views are not just an agenda but they ought to be the view of everyone. They are the correct views for everyone. Everyone would be better off if they adopted this view too." Or we are at least saying, "My views are not just an agenda. They ought to be recognized by everyone as the correct view for me." Such thinking is a perfect example of the kind of oppression we all fear.

From here we expanded our conversation into questions of cultural relativity and the ways theology can and should engage times and histories relevantly. We noted how many people we know - dear friends - who think that homosexuality is a settled issue but that American evangelicals persist in making it an issue. They are correct but in a way opposite to their meaning: In all of Latin American, African (excepting South Africa) and Asian Christianity (excepting some expat Asian theologians writing in the States) homosexuality is a settled issue - there's no question in these parts of the world that Christianity opposes homosexual practice. So in this instance it is the non-FoF/mainline protestant crowd that is acutely out of touch. I will continue to remain silent regarding my own views as I have for the last 3 years because people on both sides of such hotly contested issues is this one read this blog and to say one way or the other would be counter to my purposes both here and in continued graduate study. I really want to see opposing sides of divisive issues talk to one another with Christian charity and take one another seriously. But I think it is simply the case that the vast majority (per capita; granting of course that there are exceptions) of the Christian world believes homosexuality to be contrary to Biblical teaching. I love my friends who are gay; my point is not to offend them or to cast my vote on the matter. My point is aimed at the view that ignores the non-western Christian view on the matter.

For, consider this. Is not the response from the West to "educate" the entire rest of the world regarding human sexuality a blatantly neo-colonial move: The rest of the world is uncivilized and has not evolved to as advanced a state as we are here in West in this area of human sexuality. Therefore, we should educate them to teach them what their rights really are and how to understand their bodies. That's exactly what America and other European countries are doing. Another, somewhat less loaded example is "Female genital mutilation" - already a politically loaded term by the way. To many women this is not mutilation but "circumcision." See for example the work of Ghanian theologian Mercy Oduyoye. For my own part, it is a difficult thing for me to consider because from my Western context it seems "obviously" harmful. But in holding this view, am I not implying those local peoples in favor of it are "backward" and "undeveloped"?

A few claims and opinions that come to mind relating to this discussion: Americans - liberal and conservative, religious and non-religious alike - are not pluralists despite the claims of some. The paradigm of liberal and conservative is meaningless in American cultural discourse. Either/or truth debates are futile as a way for Christians to engage culture. The genius of American democracy and one of the lasting contributions of the Reformation was the prioritization of the conscience of individuals and individual groups. Pluralism is the way forward for faith Christian engagement with culture.

I would still argue that racial injustice should be very important to people interested in protecting families. To not consider it raises the question of which families you're protecting. My suspicion is that if judges were unilaterally ruling in favor of pro-life positions, small government and opposing gay rights then FoF probably wouldn't have such a problem with judicial tyranny. And I think that mentioning terrorism in this oblique way is just a utilitarian move to get people emotionally juiced. It says nothing about terrorism itself though.

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