the "new story:" why christianity must change?

i've had my nose in by demonstration: god, by wade bradshaw for about a week now, and it raises some really good points. one thing bradshaw said was really interesting to me:

bradshaw says there are two stories going on today, an Old one and a New one. in the Old Story, if someone wanted to be good they would go to the church and the God of the Bible. forgiveness was available to them there. even though this might have been the "moral high ground," non-christians were in agreement with it--if they wanted to climb this moral high ground, they would go to where goodness resided--in the church.

but now there is a New Story. people no longer feel that the church is the moral high ground, but instead they think themselves morally superior to the God the church proclaims. they might look to spirituality for guidance if they decided to be good, but not the church. why would someone want to go back there to find a good ethical life?

"our neighbors think we are calling them down to something they are already above, a god they are sure they have outgrown." it is inferior and immoral. bradshaw goes on to say:

"think of the hot religious issues of our day; the points on which our culture really disagrees with evangelicals on the way to live a good life. the God of the Bible is seen as homophobic. the God of the Bible is considered misogynistic. he is regarded as violent and cruel, as revealed by his acts in history. he is prejudiced and partial in his judgments, treating some people as more important than others" (142).

so what do we do, how do we respond to this? i think some have given up insisting that our God is a personal God, and some have given up on doctrine that is theologically sound. they throw it away for something that is easier to swallow, replacing it with something that has a bitter taste, but a taste nonetheless. but we cannot be unfaithful to the revelation of God. we must listen and understand where the arguments are coming from and do this carefully, even if it is frightening or displeasing, as bradshaw says. "we cannot do everything else that others may require of us in order to be acceptable." we cannot simply say that we live in a culture which will not tolerate sound doctrine and leave it at that. we must react and explain things in such a way that they do make reasonable and moral sense today--because they should and they do.