Some conservative evangelicals and other voices are trying to blame the last four years of people believing false stories\/lies, fake news, and conspiracy theories on postmodernism.\u00a0 I suppose at this point, given their forever link to Trump\u2019s disastrous\u00a0presidency, many excuses will now be offered. This is just the first of many, I\u2019m sure.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What they should\u00a0<\/span>really<\/span><\/i>\u00a0be pondering is why a wide swath of conservative white evangelicals were\u00a0<\/span>eager<\/span><\/i>\u00a0to believe false stories, fake news, and conspiracy theories if it meant they could support a racist, sexist, immoral, unprincipled, and ignorant reality television personality who championed their (not his) version of \u201cChristian\u201d America.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n None of this was postmodernism\u2019s fault. The same people who championed \u201cobjective\u201d truth, inerrancy, an infallible Bible, and \u201cevidence that demands a verdict,\u201d were all too willing to jettison those convictions once they thought it meant political power.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Much of the conservative evangelical world never understood postmodernism to begin with, because they were always too modern. They objected for the same reason secular atheists did (secular fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism are the opposite sides of the same modern coin)\u2014it was a challenge, not to objective truth (what they imagined it was), but to a philosophical narrative that privileged empiricism and scientific materialism over narratives of transcendence and mystery, like Christianity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No single post can do justice to the wide scope of postmodernism (for a great primer on postmodernism-see here<\/a>) and I do agree some versions are nihilistic, unhelpful, and to be avoided\u2014but such is not the case regarding many of its key insights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>One of those insights was to simply note there is no objective space upon which we can take in the world without bias. We are always situated, we are always gazing from a place\/perspective, history, culture, economics, gender, ethnicity, education, etc.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s one reason two people can look at the same set of facts\/science, circumstances, and events and come away with different interpretations of what those all meant. Such does not mean one of them doesn\u2019t believe in facts or science.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It also doesn\u2019t mean we can make up our own truth, that truth is relative, or that facts don\u2019t matter. It doesn\u2019t mean there are \u201calternative facts.\u201d What it does mean is that truth is much more complicated than most of us are willing to admit. It means that truth still must be arrived at, not simply assumed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our world is always being interpreted from the grand, philosophical meta-narratives we each inhabit, which inform our understanding of what we might call the \u201cbig\u201d questions. Is there a God or transcendence? Are we more than just the material\/physical? Are ethics based upon something greater than law or might when differences arise? Why are we here? Why is there something rather than nothing? And on and on. These narratives, while they might be buttressed by reason, science and empiricism, cannot be entirely founded or proved by such.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Again, this doesn\u2019t mean a person, because of his \u201ctruth\u201d or meta-narrative, can decide he wants 2+2 to equal 5, but it does mean they may differ in how they think the mathematical formulas or laws of physics arose in the first place. It also matters as to application.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Two engineers may be building huge ovens. They are both going to use the same math and maybe even the same materials. However, one may be building ovens for evil purposes while the other is doing it to provide bread. What we think facts, science, math, and engineering should be used for is guided by meta-narratives, not simply by our mathematical prowess or ability to build things.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another important factor: All meta-narratives, the philosophical frameworks we use to address and understand the \u201cbig\u201d questions are held\/believed by faith, even if many other considerations, facts, reason, science, history, logic, philosophy\/theology give them credence or lend support. As to ultimate questions, we all live by faith. This should lead to humility.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even though we might all be looking at the same tree, agree the tree exists objectively, it doesn\u2019t mean we won\u2019t view it differently if we view it from different perspectives. Maybe one person is viewing it from a mountain, another from a valley, and still another from atop the tree\u2019s branches. That perspective, one\u2019s location, leads to a different interpretation or understanding of what we all perceive seems like something we should all be able to comprehend and agree upon.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t something we should fear but embrace. Why? Because it\u2019s accurate. At this point, whatever qualifications might be offered, who would challenge the above as not true?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span>f anything, these last four years only proved the postmodern point. We realized one cannot just assume that broadly agreed upon facts, science, and accurate information will be accepted by everyone.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The QAnon<\/a> people and many Trump supporters inhabit a political and ideological meta-narrative that rejects commonly accepted and agreed upon sources of information, science, history, and culture.\u00a0 It is there that one must bring their challenge and critique to conspiracy theorists and\u00a0Trump supporters; and such is exactly what the postmodern as a philosophical tool allows us to do. Their meta-narrative has to be deconstructed, not challenged by na\u00efvely believing they accept their challenger\u2019s perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n Conservative, white evangelicals utterly failed to address QAnon or low-information Trump supporters, partly, because too many of them made up their ranks. How embarrassing.\u00a0 Now they root around for excuses. Look in the mirror.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No, we can\u2019t blame postmodernism for recent events. That\u2019s a dodge\u2014a diversion. What happened over the past four years was long in the making and predates postmodernism by decades, if not centuries. It had much more to do with bad theology, poor discipleship, a decades long proclivity to believe conspiracy theories, and what Mark Noll identified as a scandal<\/a>. Before one diverts to something they probably never understood to begin with, better start there.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n