Is being "open-minded" a good thing?
Only if the point is to stay open long enough until you find something reasonable to close your mind around. As we live in the era of "new tolerance" we find ourselves being pushed to be open to everything and committed to nothing. As the late University of Chicago Professor Allan Bloom put it so well:
Christians should be openminded in the sense of not exalting ignorance. But we should avoid the cultural peer pressure to say with a smile that everyone's values, religion, and morality are equally valid. This path only leads to self-contradiction and ultimately despair. Jesus offers a better way and has the authority to make it available to all who would take him at his word. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6)
"Openness used to be the virtue that permitted us to seek the good by using reason. It now means accepting everything and denying reason's power."
Christians should be openminded in the sense of not exalting ignorance. But we should avoid the cultural peer pressure to say with a smile that everyone's values, religion, and morality are equally valid. This path only leads to self-contradiction and ultimately despair. Jesus offers a better way and has the authority to make it available to all who would take him at his word. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6)
Are the students in your life ready to embrace the challenges and opportunities of college life? They can be. I wrote Welcome to College for just this reason. Please consider putting a copy in their hands.
Labels: historical jesus, Relativism, Truth
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
10:25 AM
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