What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

I read an interesting article online the other day (I'm still wrestling with this whole "Emergent" "Postmodern" thing...where do I fall in all this theologically?) Anyway, it's a sort of "anti-postmodern rant" but one part really struck me:

I'm fully prepared to admit that when we boomers were young, we faddishly embraced church-growth ratios and sociological analysis; we praised these modern tools as the salvation of the church. So it's poetic justice for us now to sit in the back of the room, the balding and befuddled, as the next generation praises the postmodern matrix as the salvation of the church.

But we're both wrong. We've already got a salvation for the church, and he will not share his glory with any current cultural form, no matter how valuable or necessary it may be. If the church uncritically embraced modern culture, the solution is not to uncritically embrace postmodern culture.

Every extreme in position is wrong - it is, by definition, at the very edge of rightness. Michael complained in his blog here:

Sometimes I think that all Christians should be moderate. Sometimes I think that no Christian should ever be so dispassionate to stoop to the level of moderate.

Heh - I just posted a link and then quoted the post in its entirety. Oh well, you should check out Michael's blog - there's some pretty good stuff there.

Anyway, that seems to be the tension that we live in. We have become people of extremes - extreme political positions, extreme theological positions, extreme relationships, whatever... We're trying to push out to the edge - and that's the only way that we can keep the balance right now... It's like being on a teeter totter (yep - I must live in the sticks because our public playgrounds still have 'em). The closer you get to the center - BOTH of you - the easier it is to find a balancing point. That's not to say that you shouldn't go out on the end - but you both have to decide to head toward the ends, or the thing is going to overbalance and both of you will find your bottoms much the worse off for the experience...

Now - worldview is kind of like that - only it's multidimensional and the balance point is constantly shifting. When we keep seeing the edges, everyone else will react by seeking "their" edges so that, somehow, we can keep the balance of this thing... Like an elephant dancing on a ball...um...or something...

I guess I'd be an advocate for seeking common ground and, if I can use a Postmodern term here, beginning dialogue. The "question everything" Postmodern folk need a good healthy dose of Absolute Truth and the "it's right because it's right" Modern folk need a good healthy dose of Mystery.

As I walk through

This wicked world

Searchin for light in the darkness of insanity.

I ask myself

Is all hope lost?

Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,

Theres one thing I wanna know:

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walked on

Through troubled times

My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes

So where are the strong

And who are the trusted?

And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

So where are the strong?

And who are the trusted?

And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony.

cause each time I feel it slippin away, just makes me wanna cry.

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh

Whats so funny bout peace love & understanding?

Well, my Monday Morning Rant...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

*note image above is: Roger Brown. Talk Show Addicts, 1993. Etching and aquatint, 22 1/4 x 29 ¾ in.

Oh, yeah, and the song is Elvis Costello.