Problem
Theologian D. A. Carson, in his classic work The Gagging of God, Christianity Confronts Pluralism, identifies 3 uses of the term pluralism. Empirical pluralism is simply an observation that our society is becoming increasingly diverse. Cherished pluralism adds the dimension that such diversity should be celebrated as a good thing and retained. The third form is philosophical or hermeneutical pluralism, which states that "any notion that a particular ideological or religious claim is intrinsically superior to another is necessarily wrong."1 It is this third form of pluralism that will challenge your attempt to develop and use a biblically integrated approach to moral reasoning in your ministry context. In another important work entitled The Intolerance of Tolerance, Carson writes that tolerance has been redefined from the acceptance of the existence of differing views and the right of people to hold them to the belief that accepting another's position requires you to believe that his/her position is true. How will you respond to someone in your ministry context who believes that making ethical decisions based on moral absolutes derived from the Scriptures is arrogant, wrong, and intolerant? In such a pluralistic environment, how would you make an ethical argument informed by Scripture without overtly using the scriptural underpinnings in your presentation? Would you consider this a compromise to the culture?