Our response to postmodernism:
po-mophobia or po-mophilia?
By Duffy Robbins

In his Sierra Club Guide to Kayaking and Whitewater Boating, Lito Tejada-Flores writes, “Often the obvious line or main current through the rapid is split by a big boulder partway down.... In this situation you will want to look ahead....”

As we wrap up with this issue our discussion of postmodernism and how it’s played out in youth culture, these words offer an important guiding principle: Where does it take us?

In the last issue of Good News, we looked at some elements of postmodernism that could be embraced by those who take Scripture seriously. In this issue, we look ahead at some of the trouble spots that could cause problems if we chart our course by this latest current of the culture.

There are probably several issues that might be addressed. But, perhaps, the biggest boulder in the stream of postmodern thought is its rejection of Truth, its rejection of any sort of universal metanarrative or over-arching story that ties reality together. Even without raising theological objections (although there doesn’t seem to be much room in John 14:6—“I am the Truth”—for a postmodernism that rejects foundational Truth), postmodernism’s lack of certainty makes meaning impossible and leaves our students with a gnawing emptiness they seek to fill through pursuit, possession, profession, pleasure, passion, and perversity. In his book Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey cites four possible ways of responding to the absence of metanarratives, and all four ways are clearly visible in adolescent culture:

1. Deny complexity. Try not to think deeply about life. Take refuge in fashion, superficiality, and triviality. Television’s “reality” shows, and “my neighbor-got-my-mother-pregnant-while-having-an-affair-with-me” shows provide a ready venue for this type of escape.

2. Settle for limited action. Concentrate on your own little reality. If there are no big causes that matter, settle for creating small causes that matter: getting the right outfit, buying the right car, finding a boyfriend or girlfriend, being a cheerleader, or playing in a band.

3. Construct your own language and thus command it. In its mildest form, this would be anything from taking on a goth identity, to being in a gang, to spending time on-line in some virtual “community.” In its harshest form, this is called schizophrenia.

4. Accept the meaninglessness. Embrace it with what Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind refers to as “debonair nihilism.” Pretend that the loss of meaning doesn’t matter.

My own opinion is that this fourth response, the embrace of meaninglessness, is the option least attractive to teenagers whose youthful search for meaning keeps them from surrendering to complete cynicism so young. It is, however, noteworthy that one MTV study concluded “nearly half of all ‘concept’ (i.e. nonperformance) videos depict nihilistic images such as sacrifices, murders, self-destruction, brutality, theft, drug use, and skin punctures.” Maybe kids are too young to fully embrace a philosophy summarized in the statement: “Maybe, but I doubt it….”

The fact is postmodernists cannot even live by their own non-rule “rules.” Tony Jones comments in Postmodern Youth Ministry that if we are to get a grip on postmodern cultural patterns we should, among other things, “Never make lists!” And yet, it is the fifth suggestion he makes in what he describes as a “list of postmodern credos.” Or, the ironic comment, also by Jones, “The premise of postmodernism is, then, to question all premises.” But if postmodernism embraces the premise that all premises are invalid then it must reject the very premise upon which it is based.

And that’s what makes the postmodern stream of thought so dangerous. It may keep us from seeing clearly the boulders up ahead. In his book The Post-Evangelical (Youth Specialities), Dave Tomlinson strongly suggests that since the meaning of marriage in western culture has become so confused and distorted, we should recognize that loving couples who are living together without some ceremony conducted by the church or state might well be just as married as people who have stood before a parson. Uh…can you say, fornication? Just imagine the pain and regret we might reap if youthworkers were to teach such a notion to teenagers.

Why Youth Specialties—a company that has been such a reliable and trustworthy resource—would publish a book with such breath-taking arrogance and naivete is bewildering. Perhaps it is because they are unable to see the boulders in the water up ahead.

Click here to send your response plus the title of this article to us at Good News.