Is evangelism more difficult in a society where truth is considered relative?
People embrace relativism. That’s the bad news. You notice the book that went to the top of the charts a decade ago from a professor at Cornell, even though nobody expected it to—The Closing of the American Mind. He said that 95% of students entering college had already embraced relativism, and by the time they graduated from college and had higher education, it was up to 98%. That was the bad news. The good news is that nobody is a relativist—not consistently. You can’t survive as a relativist for twenty-four hours unless you’re in a padded cell somewhere and under twenty-four-hour watch. This is because every time I walk to the street, and a bus is coming down the street, I know there can’t be a bus and not be a bus at the same time in the same relationship. So, all of a sudden, I don’t become a relativist. I become a realist, and I stop instead of stepping in front of the bus unless I’m suicidal. That’s the reality. The other good news (and bad news at the same time) is that