I’m reading a very interesting book right now entitle, “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society,” by Farhad Manhoo.
Just like “The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity” by Philip Jenkins foresaw (predicted) what we are experiencing in the Anglican Communion with the rise of the “Global South,” Manhoo’s book and thesis describe in eerily applicable ways what is happening within TEC and the Communion regarding our perceptions of what is going on and our attempt to assert the “truth.”
His premise is that we have come to a point in society where “facts” are no longer objective, but subjective according to what we want to be true, not necessarily what can be empirically show to be true. It depends on what “facts” we are willing to accept. As he writes, “Welcome to the Rashomon world, where the very idea of objective reality is under attack.” (p 25)
I see/hear/experience this more and more among those with whom I interact. I am amazed at how so many on the Anglican-related blogs interpret the same event in such drastically and diametrically different ways.
When we are determined to win at all costs and we refuse to accept that we may be wrong and when we listen only to those with whom we already agree, when compromise is no longer possible and acrimony and hubris rule the day, we have already failed God, ourselves, and the world. We simply play into the “worldly system” and into the schemes of the Enemy of our Faith.
The question in my mind is whether we will continue to abide by the “systems of this world” or whether we will begin to live in such a way that demonstrates some sort of legitimacy for our claim of a different kind of life in Christ for those who are yet to discover God. Again, the question applies to both the conservatives and the liberals and all in between.
None of us engaged in these battles (politically, socially, religiously) are without fault, none are without sin, none are without the need to repent (to God and one another) for the defamation of Christ’s cause that we have flaunted before the world all in the name of Christ.