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The E.Newspaper By Dr. Howdy, Ph.D. A.P.E., N.U.T.
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Monday
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Just consider what the modern secular mind confronts in the Bible. At the foundational level, the Bible makes a "totalizing" claim to truth. In the terminology of postmodern academic discourse, this means that the Bible claims to present absolute and non-negotiable truth that effectively trumps all other authorities. In an intellectual context of personal autonomy and individual self-expression, this appears to represent an unfair imposition of authority and a violation of the contract theory that lies at the heart of the modern experiment. We can "contract" with the Bible to serve as a guide, but that contract is open to constant renegotiation.
And the Bible contains so much material that runs against the moral sense of a largely-secularized society. Let's just be honest and admit right up front that the Bible pulls no punches and leaves no room for a public relations effort to clean up the dust storm. The Bible begins with a straight-forward declaration of divine creation, complete with a divine design for every aspect of the created order. Then, we confront the creation of human beings as made in the image of God, and thus uniquely gifted and accountable as moral and spiritual creatures. And, we add, human beings are made male and female to the glory of the Creator. There it is--gender as part of the goodness of God's creation. This is no vision of gender differences as mere social construction. Marriage immediately follows as the divinely-designed institution for human ordering, reproduction, sexuality, and romantic fulfillment. Marriage--the union of one man and one woman--is presented as an objective reality constituted as a moral covenant with legal and moral boundaries, not as a contract to be made, remade, or unmade at will.