'Statism, Post-Modernism and the Death of the Western World'

Statism, Post-Modernism, and the Death of the Western World by Steven LaTulippe

DO NOT let the title of this article scare you! It is a well-written, scathing essay which reflects the satanic nature of our Western World–and it even uses Sex and the City as major illustration.

A word on that: suppose you have never seen an episode of Sex and the City. Good for you! You really don’t need to in order to understand his point. But LaTulippe also writes:

These women are, admittedly, an extreme example. But the beauty of art lies in its ability to harness archetypes for the purpose of making social and political commentary.

This is where LaTulippe is wrong. The women of Sex and the City are not “extreme examples” or “archetypes” and–God forbid– Flannery O’Conner’s “figures drawn large.” (“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs as you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock, to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind, you draw large and startling figures.”) They are not caricatures or exaggerations. I know people like this. I went to school with them, I went to college with them, I met them in cafes and bookstores. I tried to date some of them, but as a Christian it was basically impossible.

And there are more of them every year, being formed by their peers and by the examples on television. The same animalistic phenomena appeared on Friends and Seinfeld, in Desparate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill and almost every other major form of entertainment, in songs, games and in hallways of High School.

It is very easy to say that the sky is falling and this world is going to hell, so pass the chips and take cover. Doomsaying is not only simple, but also popular. Offering hope and a solution is not. But here’s a try, and you may not like it:

This world is dying and it hates you. You must hate it back. Christ said,

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27 ESV).

And:

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:25-26 ESV)

Western Culture and America is not the friend of Christianity, at least no longer. Public education is not the friend of Christianity. While there are some good public school teachers, systems and administrators, public schools are battlegrounds for the souls of your children. Pull them out, if possible. But don’t for a second think that so-called “Christian” schools will do the job for you. They may try, and do hold back some of this death-embracing world, but your children’s peers are just as post-modern and worldly as their parents are, and are attempting to make your children into materialists as well. Consciously sometimes.

You must indoctrinate them against this world. You must take your faith seriously. You must, to use your post-modern vocabulary, become “old fashioned” and “irrelevant,” otherwise you and your children will not be living as Christians. We are in the world, not of it, and you must separate yourself from our pagan world.

So far, not much hope, eh? As Lutherans say, “This is all Law!” You betcha. Where is the Good News, where does God come in and let me off the hook?

He doesn’t. God does not let you off the hook. It’s not God’s hook, after all. He loves you and desires for you to have life. He gives us that in Jesus Christ, who says,

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 ESV).

He has overcome the world. He has given us His peace, and His promise of return. But we are still in it, and the battle still rages until the consummation of all things.