What's Said by a Christian Alarmist to be the Greatest Threat? "Syncretism"


George Barna is a well-known Christian pollster. Recently at a lightly attended conference of Christian propagandists, Barna went deep into the field of philosophy. I looked up his credentials to see if he has actually studied and/or taught academic philosophy. His bio disguises his academic background. He lists "two master's degrees" from Rutgers but does not reveal the field or fields. I suspect they were in fields related to statistics and data collection.

Like several who have posted on this blog site, Barna loves to be an armchair expert on "philosophy." He and those who post here like to drop big words and put people and views into distinct categories using these words. What Barna said in his speech has appeared here in various ways at various times. He said Americans are influenced by eight "world views." They are "biblical theism, Eastern mysticism, Marxism, moralistic deism, nihilism, postmodernism and secular humanism."

Barna's explanation of what is now happening to these views borders on the laughable. He says Americans are not following any of these eight views. Instead, they are taking what they want from each to fit their individual paths. This is terrible and alarming, Barna says. It is called "syncretism."  Syncretism is taking ideas from different sources and fitting them together in a new way that makes sense to the individual. Perhaps our modern term, "thinking outside the box" is similar. 

Barna borders on the laughable because if none of the eight world views is used, it means they do not exist and perhaps never existed as unique and separated entities. All those who were put in those boxes actually held a variety of views. We know that all during the time of Christian expansion there was also expansion of other views. We know there were always luke-warm Christians and atheists in the pews. Use of the big eight words was and always has been meaningless. 

While the smart phone/computer has changed the speed of change, there has always been "the library" to introduce doubt to people indoctrinated with any of the eight "world views." A certain percentage of people have been skeptical about the Bible since day one. Now there are simply more of them. This is not "alarming." It is just humans doing what they have always done. Human minds are dabbling in skepticism which, as Martha Stewart said, "Is a good thing."


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