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This lyrical insight was quoted to me by a nine-year-old nature buff named Sam. He was explaining the difference between certain various snakes. Sam’s expertise would mean a lot more to you if you were just bitten by a snake. Suddenly, color combinations take on more than mere aesthetic meaning.
Differences matter.
Or do they? Postmodernism is a popular campus mind-set that casts serious doubt on the notion that differences really do make a difference. It playfully tosses into the air the idea that any reality can exist beyond our own personal perception of it. Postmodernism is defined by its denial of
definition itself.
These days, the following questions are crucial:
Is there really no essential difference between women and men, except those imposed by culture? Chances are, you have a professor who seriously doubts that male-female differences essentially exist.
Do all the world’s religions just teach the same basic things in different ways? Chances are, you have a roommate who thinks so.
Is morality merely a meltdown of feelings and preferences with no hub to hang on to? Is there a concrete difference between good and evil? Chances are, you have a classmate who wonders. Unsure of the answer, she might as well go with personal preferences and feelings as her moral guide. At least she knows that feelings exist.
Is beauty only in the beholder’s eye or do standards and principles actually apply? Chances are, your art teacher is quite willing to deny beauty any real definition beyond the beholder’s eye.
Finally, is everyone a hero? Do genuine heroes actually stand out as different from the teaming masses? Chances are, you know several hit songs that celebrate the hero in us all.
Perhaps my young friend Sam can help. Sam plays outside. He takes hikes. He lives with boundaries. He listens to such authorities as his father and mother, or else! He understands that reality can still bite him regardless of his personal definition of reality. He is so busy learning that this idea that he can “have his own reality” has not occurred to him. He knows that differences matter, especially in snakes.
Sometimes, it is a pain to have to deal with differences. It can be much easier, when pressed by reality, to just say to yourself, “It’s all the same.” Then, anything you paint is a masterpiece. If women won’t date you, just go for males. Two plus two can equal five. A fun fiction can serve as
your guide to all truth. You can study your history and I’ll study mine. And why all the fuss over grades? Hey, it’s all the same. I’m my own hero!
Sorry, but life does not work this way. All medicines are not the same. Change doctors if yours thinks so. Hungry hikers must know the difference between mushrooms that nourish and mushrooms that kill. Hungry hitters need to see the subtle differences between fast balls, curves and change-ups. Good curators can tell a difference (often with microscopes) between a Rembrandt and a fake. Voters need to discern a difference between
candidates or parties, though experts get big bucks for trying to obscure and distort the differences. Detectives are hired to detect hidden or highly
nuanced distinctions to separate meaningless data from meaningful evidence. Soldiers need to detect the difference between friends and foes; civilians and combatants. This is the crucial rub for the coalition forces in the war in Iraq and it is not always easy.
The difference between joy and sorrow, good and evil, passing or failing, life and death, and being lost or found can sometimes be hard to detect. But that difference still makes a big difference. You have a choice to deny that such differences exist or begin the tough task of careful discernment. Hopefully, this summer (2004) issue of Campus CrossWalk can help. Each article is well focused and vitally relevant. The book reports are must-reads! Check out the “Trends” feature from our new president. And don’t miss the “They Said It” or the “Top Ten” links on this site.
Not only is it vital in an era of war to identify a difference between lawful, peaceful Islam and fascistic militant Islam, it is eternally crucial in any era to discern the difference between true and untrue religion.
Are we to conclude that differences matter in the physical realm but in matters spiritual, it’s all the same?
Lose sight of “the difference” and you’ll lose grip on meaning, mission, and motivation!
Joel Mark Solliday , M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Brooklyn Center Church of Christ in Minnesota. A Pepperdine graduate, he later worked in their Campus Life Office and at ACU as a Missionary in Residence. He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary.
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