My undergraduate work is in English Lit. As a student of literature, we studied a variety of critics and critical theories. One was a man by the name of Jacques Derrida. Derrida is the father of modern deconstruction and is a huge part of the postmodern movement and subsequent culture. This movement began, like many movements, in academia and then spread into popular culture. I want to dive into what Derrida said and then how that impacts what is happening in American Christianity today.
Derrida was a French philosopher, and like all other philosophers, he took ideas about thinking and thought and expounded upon them. He took the idea that all objects are made up of signified and signifier, the signified being the object and the signifier being the word that represents it in language. The signifier is arbitrary, it only exists because we assigned it, so for example there is an object growing from the ground. It is large, reaches to the sky, grows, and has leaves or needles, and sometimes fruit or nuts. We use a word, tree, to define that object. The word tree is arbitrary, and if we called it something else as long as we all agree that the word stands in the place for that object, we will be understood. If we called it a cat or a fish, or a flognart, as long as we all agree that word equals that object, it will be understood.
Derrida took that one step further, saying that things are identified primarily by what they are not. A tree is a tree because it is not a bush, a rock, a mountain, a river, or anything else. All of the things in nature have a space that is what a tree is. The only way we know it is a tree is by seeing what it is not. If it is not any of those things, then a tree is what is left. Language and the objects represented begin to seem arbitrary. To find out what something is, or what something is not, it needs to be broken down into its smallest component to find what is left. This is the heart of deconstruction.
Applying this to the Christian faith, once we begin to compare Christianity to another world religion, it simply becomes what that religion is not. If we use Muslims for example, then being a Christian doesn't mean we follow Christ, it means that we do not follow Muhammid. It no longer matters what Christianity is, it only matters what it is not. Using this method, we can remove anything from the Christian faith without problem, and we can add anything as long as it is not in line with another world religion. This has opened up Christianity to be shaped and changed by the culture in a way they see fit, as long as they retain some guiding principle. Usually, these principles fit with some general sense of the faith, like the idea of prayer, the inclusion of Christ, some Biblical teachings, traditions, and whatever sacraments seem to fit, such as Baptism (either pedo or credo). By holding to just enough of the aspects of the Christian faith that we can recognize it against the Muslim, the Atheist, and the Buddhist, then it is fine because the definitions are arbitrary and we only define things by what they are not.
The biggest issue in deconstructionism should be obvious. We can just define and redefine sin as we (or the culture) decide. It doesn't matter what Jesus said, we can just change the teachings, find ways to justify, or simply say it is obsolete. Orthodoxy no longer matters, and historical presidents can be tossed out as well. Nothing can be defined, redefined, added, or tossed out. It is this kind of thinking that has made sexuality and gender so malleable and fluid in our culture. If you can take away the aspects you don't like, then you can simply define anything by feelings or subjective reality.
If this pattern spreads into the few remaining orthodox denomination and churches, we will be in real danger of losing Biblical, orthodox Christianity in America. Faith in Christ is leaving all to follow Him, but if everyone can define for themselves who Jesus is, what following means, and which teachings are right to follow, the faith will be lost and salvation will not be preached, taught, or shared in American pulpits. Lets all pray against the dangerous movement towards Deconstruction as an aspect of the Christian faith and American culture.
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