The era of Christendom is over. Postmodern culture is sometimes described as "post-Christian." When I was brought up in the 1950s, people’s minds were still naturalized in Christianity. If you breathed air you knew who a "Pharisee" was, or what it meant to call a city "Sodom and Gomorrah." When Bob Dylan was on a tour of Britain in 1965, he was attacked by folk music purists for "selling-out." With the first bars of "Ballad of a Thin Man" someone in the Manchester audience yelled "Judas" at the singer. The band stopped and refused to go on. They knew what it meant. No longer. Christianity is now culturally as well as socially and religious disestablished. Before I could write this book, I had to program the spell-check of Windows 95. It does not know the books of the Bible, or recognize biblical names.

More accurately post-modern culture can be described as anti-Christian. "We can expect increased hostility to Christianity in general, and even more so, organized religion in particular. Skeptical of institutions, postmoderns are getting spiritual help from videos, books, radio, newsletters, and a host of do-it-yourself sources. People may be "high on God," but they are "low on the church."

Postmodern society is intrinsically hostile to the Christian faith, especially its exclusivist truth claims that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

From Christendom Culture (churchbroken) to Pre-Christian Mission Fields (the unchurched and the overchurched). Most accurately, postmodern culture should be described as "pre-Christian." We are in many ways back in the first century in the midst of a culture that still has yet to hear about who we are and what we believe.

I don’t like it that Christians are the brunt of new slams and slurs being slung left and right. I don’t like it that a new book on pool playing celebrates the game for being a sport not yet tainted or sanitized by what the author calls "the Fellowship of Christian Athletes types." I don’t like it that this culture will sit for hours in front of ER, Chicago Hope, et al and learn the hieroglyphic jargons and glossalalia of our new priests in their white coats, when they shut down as soon as we start speaking the language of the church.

For mission’s sake, what if Christians were to renounce Christianity and become disciples of Jesus?

Postmoderns are totally unfamiliar with our language, our rituals, and our beliefs. The Bibles isn’t closed; it’s unknown. Biblical illiteracy is such that 11% of the American people think Joan of Arc was married to Noah. Four out of ten Christians are unable to name the four gospels.

Canadian theologian John G. Stackhouse, Jr., tells of sitting next to a passenger and talking about his faith. Finally the passenger interrupted him and said, ‘Who is this "apostle Paul’ you’re referring to?" Which leads Stackhouse to say: "This ignorance among the educated is a sign of the times. Too much of our Christian witness today concentrates upon trying to convince people that Christianity is true. We need instead to consider two prior problems. First, most Americans and Canadians are ignorant of even the basics of authentic Christian faith. And second, most people think that they do understand Christianity and thus feel entitled to dismiss it out of hand."

Don’t be surprised if Christians turn out to be the first colonizers of the moon. Why? Because we will be motivated to take the risks of such a hazardous undertaking to escape religious persecution.

"On a worldwide basis, Christians are the most persecuted major religion in terms of direct punishment for practicing religious activities – public worship, evangelism, charity." Michael Horowitz

U.S. News & World Report: The ongoing repression of Christians worldwide receives scant notice.

Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad

Now What? Net Notes

1. Explore the search engine Disinformation for examples of anti-Christian sentiment.

2. Have you ever been flamed? "Flaming" is the posting of e-mail or public messages intended to inflame or provoke. Download some examples of flaming.

Someone has said that "flames are the friction born of minds rubbing too closely together." What does "flaming" say about postmodern culture? How is the culture flaming the church? Is there any way in which the church is "flaming" the culture?

3. For the aggressive assertion of traditional values, see the lobbying efforts of the American Muslim Council at http://www.amconline.org/newamc/.

4. Log-on to my Web site to hear Big Tent Revival sing their song "If Loving God Was a Crime" www.leonardsweet.com.

5. For an example of a church making mouse calls, pull up the Ginghamsburg Church Web site: www.ginghamsburg.org. Discuss with one another your experience of virtual worship via cyberspace Are Mike Slaughter’s sermons any less compelling on screen than in person?