The New Absolutes

And How They Are Eroding
Moral Character, Families and Society

By William D. Watkins
Bethany House, $19.99

ISBN 1556617216

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Pointing to God's truth as the real absolute

Review by Todd O. Ross

"Everything is relative!" "There are no absolutes!"
Intellectuals and the so-called cultural elite have been spouting off these lines for many decades now, and they've almost got everybody believing them, too. The belief system that these sayings propagate is called relativism, and its existence is just as much a myth as the above tenets of that belief, according to William Watkins, the author of The New Absolutes.

Watkins, an intellectual himself, uses good old logic to dispel the rumors of relativism. Think about it. If people say "Everything is relative," "I am my own judge of what is right and wrong," and "There are no absolutes," and they live by those statements, then they have become absolutes to those people.

It is almost funny how easily relativism can be disproved. It's almost funny, but not quite. It is understandable that a vast majority of non-Christians would accept relative truth. But studies that Watkins cites show that in 1994, 62 percent of born-again Christians rejected absolute truth, as did 42 percent of evangelical Christians. So if relativism is a fraud, why is our society falling apart?

Let's take a step back. Josh McDowell, Alan Bloom, William Bennett, and other cultural observers have been saying for decades that our society is going to pot, and relativism (or the rejection of moral foundations) is the cause. If that was all Watkins was saying, then it would be old news. But the title of his book, The New Absolutes, suggests that America is replacing God's outdated, intolerant, and authoritarian absolute truths with new multicultural, pluralistic, tolerant, and liberating "truths" of its own. It's like calling the stone foundation underneath a house unstable and replacing it with freshly painted rotten wood. It may look good and sturdy but it is doomed to fall.

In the second part of the book, Watkins takes ten old absolutes and matches them up with their new counterparts. He addresses religion and its place in the public square, pro-life vs. pro-death beliefs, marriage, family, sexual liberty vs. sexual license, same-sex rights, multiculturalism, racial policies, feminism, and political correctness and the new tolerance.

In each of these "arenas of conflict," as he calls them, Watkins points out the traditional Judeo-Christian absolute as it was originally intended in the early formation of our country. Then he traces its perversion, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, showing the politically correct stance that America has taken today. To Watkins's credit, as he examines each of these absolutes, he is just as condemning of the old absolute as the new if warranted.

For example, he says the old absolute for race relations was "All white people are created equal and should be treated with dignity and respect"; the new absolute is "All human beings are created equal and should be treated with dignity and respect, but people of color should receive preferential treatment." Watkins says, "I think both claims to truth are wrong, as are reasons people have used to support each. . . . Whites and blacks have often abused one another and their histories to get what they wanted."

The New Absolutes is not an easy read, but it should be a required one for every Christian. Watkins makes us think about what we believe and what we have been duped into believing.

Many times Christians cower behind the onslaught of political correctness: "If all these professors, doctors, and philosophers are saying this, then it must be true." The New Absolutes seeks first to inform Christians about what is happening right under their noses, and second, it sets out to arm them with some of the most potent ammunition under heaven: The Absolute Truth.

Todd O. Ross is a freelance writer from Nashville, TN.