“Just the facts, Ma’am.”

In the 1950s, this phrase caught hold in our American vocabulary, inspired by the persona of Sergeant Joe Friday of the TV show, Dragnet. The no-nonsense police investigator reflected a concept (even if he never uttered the exact words that became so well established in pop-culture) embraced by the Modernist worldview.

Modernism (1859-1959)

While sociologists can’t agree on an exact time frame for when the Modernist worldview dominated society, I put it from the publication of Darwin’s book, On Origin of Species, to the end of the 1950s. Some of the tenets of this perspective included hangovers from the Enlightenment (which lasted from 1610-1794 according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica).

The Scientific Revolution had established that what could be trusted was empirical data that we could test in a lab or under a microscope. Reason and rationality were called upon to help us to understand the world in which we lived. Since Voltaire and others had proven God was irrelevant to life, we could learn what we needed to know from the Scientific Method.

What we could not trust were subjective elements like feelings or faith. Mathematical, naturalistic, and materialistic facts were all we should concern ourselves with. Gone were antiquated notions of objective morality, religion, spirituality, and “all of that nonsense.”

Postmodernism (1959-present)

The postmodern revolution of the 1960s introduced a lot of pantheistic, eastern mysticism and dialectical reasoning that pushed back on the notions of certainty held by Modernists. Postmodernism is really a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it does come after Modernism, but that doesn’t really describe the essence of what it embraces. It would be more aptly named, “Anti-Modernism.”

It sets out to reject all of the inherent values and ideals promoted by its predecessor.

As the subjectivism of Postmodernity took over universities, students were taught to embrace uncertainty (at least in theory). It was acknowledged that we all have inherent biases that we bring to our investigation of any topic. Rather than try to hide that fact, the new ideology insisted we must embrace that personal perspective and be loud and proud about it.

There was no longer any such concept as truth that was true for all people, in all places, at all times. Now we were told to promote “our truth,” and that whatever is “true for us” is the only truth we can know.

Far from promoting the notions of tolerance and acceptance that are applauded by Postmodernism, it has produced a new form of absolutism. If you don’t embrace the new values and virtues of leftist progressivism, you will be mocked, ostracized and cancelled. It’s alarming how the movement that decried dogmatism and certainty has proven to be even more intolerant than the absolutist system it replaced.

Now, most postmodernists are soldiers in a culture war, seeking to destroy any ideology or institution that stands in their way.

The New Journalism

The farther down the postmodern cultural road we go, the more we find higher education indoctrinating students into this new framework. Every facet of society has been impacted by the postmodern revolution, but lately, I’ve been thinking about its impact on journalism. The past couple of months I’ve been doing a lot of media interviews.

Somewhere back in the day before I was born, newspapers used to print stories about what happened, and allow you to decide what you wanted to think about it. Not anymore. Today, in most papers (which are now online, so they aren’t really “papers”), almost every news piece reads like an opinion editorial (op-ed).

One major national paper (that I will leave unnamed) has published an entire series of articles in the past year attacking Christian conservatives. One of my friends was targeted by them. They attempted to discredit his professional work, but even worse, they found one of his adult children who has walked away from his faith and drug their family’s pain into the public spotlight.

Why do that?

The mainstream media doesn’t focus on Hunter Biden and use him to discredit his father. In fact, they will cry with the loudest protest if a right-wing publication attempts to do so. They say it’s wrong to exploit a family crisis for political means. But they will do so whenever it is convenient for their narrative. It’s a complete inconsistency based on ideology.

They weaponize the media to demolish their political or social opponents.

When I spoke with the main journalist who has led this attack, he said to me, with a straight face, “I don’t have an agenda here. I’m strictly objective. I’m just trying to transmit facts.”

It’s hard to avoid a belly laugh when someone acts like they believe such a thing. He didn’t bother to interview the other children of my Christian friend who love their father and his God.

That doesn’t accomplish their ends.

A Christian Perspective

As Christians, we take a different viewpoint than both the Modernists and the Postmodernists. Our view is that we all have a perspective (no one is entirely neutral) on important moral issues. Our starting points (Atheism or Theism) inform how we view and understand life’s biggest questions.

The Christian perspective is that there is a reality that exists quite apart from all of us. It doesn’t depend on our opinion or perspective. We call that realm: “The truth.” Our goal isn’t to push a biased narrative, nor should it be to deny all inherent bias. It is, instead, to discover what is true, and promote the truth whether it is convenient or not.

The Bible never promotes the popular idea of “fairness” or “equity.” It promotes justice and righteousness. These are objective values. In this way, we stand apart from both the Modernists and Postmodernists.

We believe there is a universal law to which we must ALL (liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats) submit. Our goal is not to destroy our political opponents in an “us versus them” culture war. It is to help every person come to know the truth of God and the God of truth.

Only then will their worldview align in such a way that they will be able to see fallacies embedded in both the Modern and Postmodern worldviews, and be able to teach and report in a way that is consistent with the truth of the physical and moral reality of our universe.