This is an interesting time.

I grew up in a Fundamentalist church. Without going into a lot of historical detail, Fundamentalists were Bible believing evangelicals who were almost militant in their commitment to fight against a corrupt culture. They were driven to identify the evils of their day. They proudly dedicated themselves to “calling sin, sin.” The broader secular culture did not receive this well. Fundamentalists were labeled as “holier than thou”—religiously self-righteous people who naively believed in moral absolutes by which they could assault anyone outside their group.

Well. That was now some time ago. There are some “Fundamentalist” type churches left—but not many. Popular culture recoiled against the moral absolutism of those churches and fine-tuned a few versions of moral subjectivism as preferred alternatives to such religious dogmatism. “Tolerance” was the new buzz word of the day. After all, who knows what is right? Morals, mores, ethics, and values are the stuff of region and convention—not certitudes by which we can judge one another. Who is to say who is right?

What is interesting about our time is how quickly this has changed. In my lifetime. Palpably changed. The earlier twin virtues of tolerance and moral ambiguity are gone. They have been replaced with moral intolerance and certitude. The old campaign against moral absolutes has been replaced…by a new breed of moral absolutists. To cast this in the historical context I am familiar with: there is a new breed of Fundamentalist. These Fundamentalists are not necessarily religious, but they are just as militant about sniffing out infractions, sins, and transgressions. These sins are found in the names of buildings, statues, catch-phrases, and children’s books. Violations of the list of these new Fundamentalists are treated with a moral absolutism that would make Carrie Nation blush. There is no give…no play…no hesitation for striking with censorious precision against each violator. It is now the stuff of the nightly news.

Every night.

Actually, I am not always in disagreement with the finds of the new Fundies. They certainly have some points to be made. There are cases where the sins of past personalities are so heinous that it’s hard to justify parading them as heroes. Maybe that is why “Adolf” ceased to be a popular name for children. What is interesting to me in all this is the speed of the move from “Who is to say what is right?” to “Expunge the deviant from all records!” Why did this change so quickly?

I think the quick reversal is evidence of the lack of grounding for moral thinking apart from the knowledge of God where morals are decided, not discovered. Thoughts about morals shift and change quickly and even without warning. The good news is that there is a new sense of the seriousness of sin (racism, violence, fascism, etc)…and that sin is really a thing! Sadly other sins may be passed over in the tirades…sins like self-righteousness, judgmentalism, and pride. Ultimately humans need the guidance of the One whose character informs true moral understanding.

It is easy to get frustrated at the whimsical wandering of secular moral musings. I would rather be encouraged that a generation seems to be seeing that some things need to be addressed. Absolutely.