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A Letter to an Apologist: Moral Relativism
by L Cruz III2007
Below is something that started off as an e-mail but has since evolved into something much bigger. I sent it to a VERY good website that specializes in Christian Apologetics. Fortunately, they seemed to completely agree with my perspective. However, because I have since added considerably to the original document, I can no longer say with certainty that they would agree with me today (though I suspect they might).
Someone who had serious reservations about the validity of Christianity had asked them, "Why would God order the destruction of men, women, and children?" In response they posted something that was very detailed and "scripturally" accurate; but spiritually speaking it seemed to be overlooking one very important detail about the Judeo-Christian understanding. Not only is it a detail that I believe many of us forget when reading the Old Testament, but I think our failure to mention it to others could lead them to the false conclusion that the Bible is no longer relevant.
Hello,
Let me begin by telling you how much I am learning from your
site. Thank you for creating it.
In your answer to the question, "Why
would God order the destruction of men, women, and children?", I am confident
there is much more going on than what you described.
For those who believe the Bible is merely a historical
document, I can understand how a defense like yours (which is very common) might
seem feasible. However, the Bible is much more than just finite history. It is
so profound that it can be likened to a Divine and interactive dance floor where
God takes the lead and we learn experientially.
[I believe
that sometimes, when we take literal approaches to scripture devoid of
spiritual reflection, what we are doing is trying to lead the dance
ourselves. We are trying to get God to follow along with us.
The Kingdom of God is within us. If something about a piece of
scripture does not sit right in our hearts (like in the case of the person who
wrote you), we NEED to make careful note of it. I believe God wants
us to contemplate scripture so that the words in the Bible will take us beyond
themselves to a clearer understanding of His nature. I believe that to
take everything too literally is to shut down part of a relationship with
God. Please allow me to explain this perspective.]
Think back to the very first time you had read
biblical accounts of children being massacred. Remember the uncomfortable
feeling you experienced when reading it?
Good!
That was
God!
He was teaching you
through experience the power of, the presence of, and the purpose for His Moral
Law. Does the murder of children sting your heart? Good! Without God you
would have felt no sting at all!
St. Augustine was
convinced that evil is not a force, but rather the absence of God's Good. It can
be likened to a hole in a shirt where the shirt aught to be. [I
believe a Christian apologetic that misses the moral mark, regardless of
scriptural or historical accuracy,] runs the risk of becoming a hole in God's
Moral Law where His Moral Law aught to be. [It runs the potential of
straining this moral understanding, which is burned upon our hearts,
through filters of that period's moral relativism (if the
relativism was present).]
[Moral relativism is
where ] each person or
culture gets to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong.
[While this may seem
reasonable at first, cultural relativism hides within itself a dark and
illogical problem. In the morally relativistic world
view, right and wrong is seen as nothing more than
a matter of personal or cultural taste. And, who can argue with taste? No
one. Therefore, behind this facade of "relativistic fairness" comes a
surprising immunity that would never allow us to stop or even
criticize another Hitler or Stalin because morality would be seen
as a matter of "taste." Moral
relativism is a perspective that breaks down logically and morally.]
Therefore, I believe that in SOME
cases we need to learn to look and explain beyond the bounds of biblical
[literalism] because sometimes God uses history as a substrate (upon which further
understandings grow). [ I believe God often uses the Bible to teach
us through examples of what to do and what NOT to do.]
Besides, it is the argument from guaranteed personal experience of the
Divine that most proves the Bible's validity. For example, when an atheist
brings up his disgust over biblical accounts of people killing children, rather
than searching for tactical ways to defend murder, take great joy in knowing
that (to some degree) the experiential validity of the Bible has already been
proven to that person by God Himself. In other words, God has laid the
[moral
] ground work. God is real and God
is active and God has called you to offer this person MORE training...not to
undo God's work. (I am sorry if that sounded cold.)
This whole
thing is a HUGE subject that I wish more Christians understood.
To quote Dr. Ravi
Zacharias, "The Bible is not intended to teach us WHAT to think, but rather HOW
to think." (He may have been quoting CS Lewis or GK Chesterton.)
CS Lewis
once wrote, "He (God) selected one particular people and spent several centuries
hammering into their heads the sort of God he was...Those people were the Jews,
and the Old Testament gives an account of the Hammering process."
Please know, however, that I deeply
commend you for working so hard to defend God's word. I read your account of how
lonely Christian Apologetics can be. I have the utmost respect and appreciation
for what you are doing.
I am always eager to learn
more. I would like it deeply if we kept in touch.
God
bless!
your loving brother in Christ,
L Cruz III
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)