Tantalizing If True

Courtesy of the New York Times, I ran across an atheist propaganda website, Why Does God Hate Amputees?. Basically, the author, Marshall Brain, argues that because God doesn’t act like atheists want him to, God can’t exist. Because he’s smarter than God and knows better. A funny response to his teachings can be found at Why Does God Hate Deputies?

Marshall Brain also challenges Christian leaders to read 30 embarrassing Bible verses on national television. Of course, they’re hand-picked by the atheist and they’re out of context.

So, in the spirit of good fun and fair play, here are some sentences from that atheist website, hand-picked by me and out of context:

The Bible is the book that contains the Ten Commandments, the revelation that Jesus is our resurrected savior and the story of our creation. This is God’s holy word to his children.

God seems to be interacting with our world and answering millions of prayers on planet Earth every day.

God’s power often can be quite dramatic.

Jesus is actually in our midst and God answers our prayers.

God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small.

“Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we pray to you to cure every case of cancer on this planet tonight.”

When a person says, “ask anything in my name, and I will do it,” what does he mean? Presumably, Jesus means that if you ask for anything, he will do it. What else could he possibly mean…?

If you are having a problem with unproductive behaviors, what you need to do is either educate or rehabilitate yourself. You would do that by talking with a counselor or seeing a therapist.

That is about as clear as mud, isn’t it?

Every biologist will tell you with certainty that all of life is a chemical reaction.

God has never taken over all the TV and radio stations and broadcast a message to mankind.

Every Christian should jump at the chance to spread God’s word on national television.

If God is real and if God inspired the Bible, then we should worship God as the Bible demands. We should certainly post the Ten Commandments in our courthouses and shopping centers, put “In God We Trust” on the money and pray in our schools. We should focus our society on God and his infallible Word because our everlasting souls hang in the balance.

I’ve decided my antisocial clumsiness is due to subclinical undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome. Nothing can be my fault. No, I’m not serious. Not about Asperger’s. Not about my blamelessness.

I wish I was. It would explains why I don’t pay enough attention when people engage me in conversation, including other bloggers. Maybe it’s humility, but I don’t think so. Because I was very interested when I read Leaving Munster (finally) and noticed favorable comments about my post on Islam and Christianity.

One comment said, “it was a real crackerjack. i saw it coming and loved every nanosecond. it reminded me of a keith drury post.”

Okay, so let’s take a look at some Keith Drury posts. A Wesleyan writer, backpacker, and professor with a historically Mennonite beard. Do you like? I do.

Philosophy professor Eric Schwitzgebel has been studying whether ethicists behave more ethically than other people. So far, his research suggests that books on ethics are more likely to get stolen from the library. Mindhacks summarizes some of his theories.

I wonder if books on ethical relativism are stolen more often than books on Biblical ethics. I hope so.

The email appeared to be Christian spam, advertising a book and no personal greeting, but why did it come to me? I looked over the website it referred to, and then I could see why.

For thirty years Paul Kuritz was a respected (and atheistic) theater professor. Then, faced with personal crises and divine interventions, he found himself praying that God wouldn’t make him a born-again evangelical Christian. God did anyway, and Kuritz wrote more about his new perspective in the Porpoise Diving Life.

I wouldn’t agree with everything in the book The Fiery Serpent, which I haven’t read. For example, the email refers to the supposedly “undeniable truth: that Christian filmmaking and theatre… are having global impact on our world today.” I’ve already summarized my disappointing first-hand experience with imaginative conversions and Christian theater here. There really is a difference between drama and real life. You might also wonder how he can use Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Kazan’s On the Waterfront as examples in a book on Christian film and theater. But Kuritz is no wooly-minded, starry-eyed artiste. He doesn’t baptize the status-quo so much as he is calling for it to change. And he is calling for filmmakers and theater people to change.

A Christian friend who came from a non-Christian background explains some of the differences in that vantage point compared to people who were raised in church :

1. Talking about God’s presence in a situation honors Him and recognizes His role.  It’s a privilege to recognize him.  vs. Let’s be quiet about our faith in Jesus because we don’t want to overwhelm people.  Why don’t people in the church want to talk about God?
2. When we tell each other problems in the church, we should pray for each other.  vs. Why do these people tell me their problems?  I have enough garbage in my own life to deal with.  Why don’t they take responsibility & just pray about it?  Why don’t people pray for each other in person as problems come up?
3. The church is the body of Christ.  vs.  Biological family is the main thing that holds people together in groups.  Why don’t people offer hospitality to one another and include others in their lives even if they aren’t related by blood?
4. How can I be growing as a follower of Jesus Christ?  vs.  What, a daily quiet time?  I know I should, but the pastor is asking too much of my time this week.  I have so much to do.  Why is spending time with Jesus not a priority?
5. How can we give glory to God with the spiritual gifts he has given us?  vs.  Why practice so hard to do the arts well?  It’s just for us, and we don’t care if it’s in tune or not.   Why does the church settle for mediocrity when it comes to the arts?

Any questions? Any answers?

The UK-based Anabaptist Network announces the publication of a series of books, beginning with Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World by Stuart Murray. “This book explores what it means to be Christian in a world in which Christianity is no longer the dominant paradigm in our society.”

Except that Christians have always lived in a world in which Christianity is not the dominant paradigm. Maybe it used to be different in your society, but it’s always been this way for the vast majority of human beings throughout history. The Christians in China, India, and Africa know that. Ever since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, we’ve been living in a “post-God” world. (more…)

“So is this it? This is what it comes down to: real Christians don’t dance? Moses parted the water for this? Rahab tucked the spies away in her closet for this? Jael drove a tent peg into the head of Sisera for this? Jesus died and rose again, martyrs were sawn in two, and the Church has prevailed for almost two thousand years against the gates of hell so that Christians today can live out this ever important testimony to a waiting, watching world: real Christians don’t dance? ” (more…)

– John Fischer, Real Christians Don’t Dance

In 1948, it was impossible to gather a valid sample of American male sexual practices (“Hello, I’d like to ask you a few questions about your lover”). It would be difficult today. And in 1948, just as now, it was difficult to gather ethical data about the sexual responses of baby boys. Weapon of Mass Distraction provides more information about exactly what Alfred Kinsey did instead. (more…)

Michael Spencer has good ideas. In his article, Subcultural Spirituality or “I know he’s a Christian because I saw it on his bumper sticker.”, he warns against replacing personal disciplines with church campaigns.
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David Nussbaum in Anabaptism Today gives British examples of how “Christendom” (the medieval concept of a political or geographical Christianity) still has governmental and cultural support. Many American Christians believe that it should. They teach that removing prayer from public schools and removing religious words from public buildings is a denial of a special covenant that God made with America.
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