One of our Bible teachers asked me to help with a question that arisen in class the week before. The topic of voodoo rituals had come up in the discussion, and there had been quite a been of laughter about such superstition. But afterwards, a member of the class wondered if Christians don't look just as strange. If our Bible refers to witches and dragons and other such antiquated novelites, how can we suppose that we are in any way superior to those misguided and ridiculous people?
The question makes an intelligent point: if other religions are to be rejected and mocked whenever they look backwards to the spirit of our age, then Christians deserve to be mocked and rejected as well. That is, the Church has commonly seemed foolish/out of step with the times/superstitious to people in every generation since Jesus came. We have been labeled atheists, arsonists, practioners of incest, and kooks, and have often seemed to support end times predictions which proved to be demonstrably wrong. Perhaps that's why Paul boasted that we must be willing to be fools for Christ.
Granted, the Holy Spirit has convinced you and me that Christ is true and anything outside of Christ is error. However, for people who are trying to discover the truth about religion, it would seem there are some valid, rational tests which can be applied to any religious tradition. Those tests would include:
1. AUTHORITY: Is this based on folk tales and mysterious secrets that can't be tested? Or is it based on objective truth which is presented in some concrete form that can be considered and evaluated? The Christian Faith has stood the test of time because it is based on an ancient text which has accurately recorded history, made correct predictions centuries in advance, and has demonstrated scientific prescience (writers expressing scientific concepts that were not known to their generation.)
2. UNIVERSALITY: Does this religion only appeal to one particular cultural or geographical group, or does it transcend borders and barriers to impact all kinds of men and women in every age? Islam, for example, appeals largely to people of Middle Eastern descent and is growing today primarily on the basis of global immigration, political duress, and heavy birth rates. Christianity is transmitted largely through conversation and has transcended every age, every national boundary, every demographic division.
3. IMPACT: Does this religion positively transform communities and lift people out of despair and hopelessness, or does it promulgate poverty, ignorance and hopelessness? Voodoo and witchcraft around the world and throughout history have encouraged practioners to remain in dark, intolerant, violent, barbaric conditions. Islam literally transports 7th century cruelty, sexism, and bigotry into the 21st Century. In sharp contrast, Christianity has historically fostered education, built schools, and encouraged people to become educated. The Church has led the way in bringing equality to women and racial minorities.
I actually enjoy apologetics and could continue this discussion for several pages, but this is probably sufficient. One should not discount a religion solely because their practices look foolish and superstitious to our 21st Century American perspective, which is a very small window in time. Rather, one should evaluate a religion on the basis of authority, global universality and historical impact. On the basis of objective, rational measures, Christianity shines like a brilliant star in a pitch black sky.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Last Christian Holiday
Most US churches will devote the entire month of December to Christmas festivities. It's what we all do in hopes of recapturing the true meaning of Christmas. But I just gotta say this: if we have not been able to rekindle that flickering flame in three centuries of trying, it's probably not going to catch fire in 2009 either! We tend to forget that most congregations in the American colonies banned Christmas more than 300 years ago because it had nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with drunkenness and irreverence.
We will always have the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the fact that the Word became flesh, but we've probably lost 'Winter Holidays' forever. The same is true of Easter. Americans have come to associate that Spring festival with the change of seasons, new Spring fashions, pagan eggs and bunnies, or a week of vacation. People who don't show up for worship on Easter Sunday have no clue they were supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ all along.
The only truly Christian holiday that's left for us is Thanksgiving. It's a national day of gratitude to the God of the Bible. It was He who went to such great lengths to guide Christopher Columbus to these shores when he was trying to find India! It was the Almighty God who enabled the poor, unlearned Pilgrims to survive their first brutal winter after they relocated from England to these hostile shores. The Indians who would have massacred them had died suddenly. The ones who dropped by to visit actually felt sorry for them and taught them to plant corn and trap beavers. Their survival and eventual success led to the original creation of this day of Giving Thanks.
A couple of years ago, I asked some school children what they thought Thanksgiving was all about. Their schools had taught them it was about being thankful to the Indians for helping the Pilgrims grow corn. That's wrong! It's not quite as wrong as the idea that Thanksgiving is about turkey and football, but it's still misguided.
The first Thanksgiving Feast was about giving thanks to the Heavenly Father who had provided for his people in mysterious ways during arduous times. There will be a lot of handwringing this year about where America is headed, and justiably so. But don't forget where America came from. Perhaps if we were more intentional in giving thanks and more deliberate in retelling the true story of Thanksgiving, we might eventually recapture the right stuff that has always made us great: faith in Jesus Christ and character forged by fire.
Don't miss the wonder of Thanksgiving. Start practicing today and you might just be ready when the big day arrives.
We will always have the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the fact that the Word became flesh, but we've probably lost 'Winter Holidays' forever. The same is true of Easter. Americans have come to associate that Spring festival with the change of seasons, new Spring fashions, pagan eggs and bunnies, or a week of vacation. People who don't show up for worship on Easter Sunday have no clue they were supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ all along.
The only truly Christian holiday that's left for us is Thanksgiving. It's a national day of gratitude to the God of the Bible. It was He who went to such great lengths to guide Christopher Columbus to these shores when he was trying to find India! It was the Almighty God who enabled the poor, unlearned Pilgrims to survive their first brutal winter after they relocated from England to these hostile shores. The Indians who would have massacred them had died suddenly. The ones who dropped by to visit actually felt sorry for them and taught them to plant corn and trap beavers. Their survival and eventual success led to the original creation of this day of Giving Thanks.
A couple of years ago, I asked some school children what they thought Thanksgiving was all about. Their schools had taught them it was about being thankful to the Indians for helping the Pilgrims grow corn. That's wrong! It's not quite as wrong as the idea that Thanksgiving is about turkey and football, but it's still misguided.
The first Thanksgiving Feast was about giving thanks to the Heavenly Father who had provided for his people in mysterious ways during arduous times. There will be a lot of handwringing this year about where America is headed, and justiably so. But don't forget where America came from. Perhaps if we were more intentional in giving thanks and more deliberate in retelling the true story of Thanksgiving, we might eventually recapture the right stuff that has always made us great: faith in Jesus Christ and character forged by fire.
Don't miss the wonder of Thanksgiving. Start practicing today and you might just be ready when the big day arrives.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Compassionate Atheism?
Speaking at a Memorial service following the murders at Fort Hood last week, President Obama explained that no religious faith approves of such atrocities. Then he reminded us all that the killer will face justice in this life and the next. It struck me as remarkable to hear a political leader confirm the idea of judgment waiting in Eternity.
The man who murdered 13 Americans and injured many more may not actually get justice here. Sometimes our system works, but on other occasions it fails us miserably. Public trials for terrorists sometimes do more harm than good by providing a platform for bizarre and dangerous behavior. But whatever happens here, most of us believe that God will certainly hold this calculating killer responsible in the world to come.
This idea is timely because atheist groups in this country are continuing to press for respect and legitimacy for their un-religion. For almost a decade, they've been attacking Christianity as evil, bigoted, and superstitious. Now they've adopted a new idea: "You don't have to be religious to be moral. Atheists are moral too."
The newest propaganda explains that unreligious people can treat each other fairly because it's a good thing, even if they don't believe in God. Unreligious people can share their wealth with others because they would want the same treatment in a crisis. Unreligious people can refuse to abuse and exploit other people because they don't want to be abused or exploited. Unreligious people can choose a socialistic form of government in which the income is spread around equally.
In theory, all this is true. But in reality, there are compelling reasons why atheistic attempts at morality never last for long. Quite simply, sinful human beings always discover a way to bend the rules and gain an extra share of the treasure. Someone always discovers that it's possible to work less and still benefit from the kindness of others, even while doing selfish or even dangerous things on the side. And whenever one selfish person takes advantage of the glitch in the software, many others follow. The government can never catch all the offenders, so there's a good chance you may be one of those who gets away.
But you'll never escape the justice of God. That's the concept that separates religious people from atheists who face temptation. Why are there so many unbelievers in American prisons and so very few Christians? The atheist has no one to warn him, "This is absolutely wrong, and you'll never get away with it." Sure, we can cook up intellectual models that suggest atheists are no different than other people. But in fact, they are very different for many reasons. And one of those reasons is that they believe they are not accountable.
Then there's that other nagging reality which confirms that compassionate atheism is more about PR than practice. The next time you see a news story about some catastrophic disaster and the rescue and clean up that follows it, watch the relief trucks arriving. You'll see the Red Cross, the Southern Baptists, Samaritan's Purse, the Salvation Army, and various local church vehicles. Don't wait for the American Atheists relief truck to arrive on the scene. Atheists have manged to produce attack books and publicity campaigns, but they have never dispatched a single relief truck or rescue team to a national crisis. So while there's a great deal of evidence for the existence of God, we'll have to take the compelling compassion of atheism on sheer faith.
The man who murdered 13 Americans and injured many more may not actually get justice here. Sometimes our system works, but on other occasions it fails us miserably. Public trials for terrorists sometimes do more harm than good by providing a platform for bizarre and dangerous behavior. But whatever happens here, most of us believe that God will certainly hold this calculating killer responsible in the world to come.
This idea is timely because atheist groups in this country are continuing to press for respect and legitimacy for their un-religion. For almost a decade, they've been attacking Christianity as evil, bigoted, and superstitious. Now they've adopted a new idea: "You don't have to be religious to be moral. Atheists are moral too."
The newest propaganda explains that unreligious people can treat each other fairly because it's a good thing, even if they don't believe in God. Unreligious people can share their wealth with others because they would want the same treatment in a crisis. Unreligious people can refuse to abuse and exploit other people because they don't want to be abused or exploited. Unreligious people can choose a socialistic form of government in which the income is spread around equally.
In theory, all this is true. But in reality, there are compelling reasons why atheistic attempts at morality never last for long. Quite simply, sinful human beings always discover a way to bend the rules and gain an extra share of the treasure. Someone always discovers that it's possible to work less and still benefit from the kindness of others, even while doing selfish or even dangerous things on the side. And whenever one selfish person takes advantage of the glitch in the software, many others follow. The government can never catch all the offenders, so there's a good chance you may be one of those who gets away.
But you'll never escape the justice of God. That's the concept that separates religious people from atheists who face temptation. Why are there so many unbelievers in American prisons and so very few Christians? The atheist has no one to warn him, "This is absolutely wrong, and you'll never get away with it." Sure, we can cook up intellectual models that suggest atheists are no different than other people. But in fact, they are very different for many reasons. And one of those reasons is that they believe they are not accountable.
Then there's that other nagging reality which confirms that compassionate atheism is more about PR than practice. The next time you see a news story about some catastrophic disaster and the rescue and clean up that follows it, watch the relief trucks arriving. You'll see the Red Cross, the Southern Baptists, Samaritan's Purse, the Salvation Army, and various local church vehicles. Don't wait for the American Atheists relief truck to arrive on the scene. Atheists have manged to produce attack books and publicity campaigns, but they have never dispatched a single relief truck or rescue team to a national crisis. So while there's a great deal of evidence for the existence of God, we'll have to take the compelling compassion of atheism on sheer faith.
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