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"Don't fight postmodernity," the speaker, a popular theologian, exhorted the packed crowd of Christian educators. "Take advantage of it. Express experience over reason, image over words."

But should Christians really be celebrating postmodernism? Admittedly, it's good that modernism, which jettisoned God in favor of reason, has collapsed. But postmodernism has rejected not only God and reason but also the very idea of universally valid truth. It teaches that individuals are locked in the limited perspective of their own race, sex, or ethnic group; claims to moral truth are viewed as oppressive.

Postmodernism has thus radically altered the way many in this generation think about life's most basic suppositions. And as postmoderns begin filling our pews, it becomes increasingly hard for those who think in traditional terms to communicate the biblical view of life, or even to present the gospel.

When we speak of truth—meaning binding absolutes—our postmodern neighbors hear just one more opinion among many. The biblical story, which we present as divine revelation, is seen merely as one of many, equally valid cultural narratives.

This makes moral propositions increasingly problematic to postmodern listeners. For instance, how can we argue for the "common good" when postmodernists don't believe in a common good, seeking instead, as philosopher John Gray put it, merely "to reconcile conflicting goods"?

We lack even a common language for moral discourse. When we use the term liberty, for example, we mean the classic definition, famously articulated by Benjamin Franklin: the right to do what is right. Our Founders tied freedom—the highest political goal—to moral truth.

But postmodernism unties the knot; today, when newcomers to our pews hear the word liberty, they think the definition is "the unrestricted right to do what one pleases."

It's a "right" codified by the infamous "mystery clause" in the Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992): "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

This 180-degree turnabout stands government's role on its head, as Professor Russell Hittinger has written. In the modern era, government's role was to enforce commonly held moral beliefs, rooted in Scripture. But today, as decreed in cases like Roe v. Wade and Romer v. Evans, the role of government is to protect the individual from the imposition of moral values. But moral absolutes are our only guarantee of freedom. Without transcendent moral truths above individual preferences, human rights founder.

What we're witnessing is the fulfillment of Nietzsche's formulation: "Languages of good and evil" are rooted in neither truth nor reason, but in the will to power. The vacuum of postmodernity means whoever is in power decides right and wrong. On its face, that's bad news for Christians.

So how do we engage the postmodern mind?

Some Christians—like that conference speaker—think we should join the postmodern bandwagon's emphasis on experience. One pastor told me that 10 years ago he could discuss moral truth with unbelievers, while "today I connect only on grounds of pain and compassion." But connecting only at the level of feelings is a weak reed for evangelism.

Someone might "feel" right about Christianity—until those feelings change. And even a person who is drawn to Christ existentially has no context in which to understand those beliefs or the church's moral teachings. Significantly, a recent Barna poll revealed that the most common basis for moral decision-making among Christians is "doing whatever feels right" in a given situation. This is why, sadly, Christians and non-Christians divorce at the same rate.

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5