Thinking like a Christian

“A Christian worldview should remind us of our multifaceted dependence on God’s goodness, which should foster humility within us. Thus, humility is an important indicator of whether we are progressing toward conformity with God’s story. The same could be said of becoming more loving toward God and others or living a life characterized by gratitude toward God. Both not only provide a partial answer to our first question - ‘What should we expect from a Christian worldview?’ - they also address the second question - ‘What are the indicators that we are growing toward the ideal, represented by God’s story?’” Steve Wilkens and Mark L. Sanford, Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives

Say True, Stay True

What makes relationships work? Whatever it is, it has to be one of the most important things to know because the meaningful and important things in our lives have to do with relationships. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his relationships – especially those key relationships like family and friends. Fortunately, the answer is quite simple: honesty and commitment.

Relationships are built on trust and trust demands honesty. Honesty seems to be the essential virtue in the parable of the sower and the seeds (Luke 8:15). When we are the same person on the outside as we are on the inside we invite people to trust us. This kind of honest integrity makes people feel safe and allows them to truly know us, to truly have communion with us. If on the other hand you play your cards close to the vest, showing me only a poker face, how in the world can I entrust myself to you, and why would I? I don’t want to be manipulated. I want to be loved.

Relationships, and life in general, are full of ups and downs. We are going to disappoint each other and life is going to be hard. I need to know you’ll be there for me even if I fail. And you need to know that I’ve “thrown away the key” and will stick with you through the thick and thin. Commitment is what allows us to build our relationship on a solid, immovable foundation. It enables us to relax and be ourselves and weather the changes because there’s something unchangeable that holds us together. If I know you’ll be there tomorrow, I can be myself today. If I know your friendship won’t change tomorrow, I can endure the changes of today.

Good relationships are what everybody wants. Close relationships are what everybody needs. We can have them if we want, but we must choose honesty and commitment. We must say true and stay true. Relationships, like everything else in this universe, follow a set of rules. If we practice honesty and commitment our relationships will blossom like the seed yielding a hundredfold.  And that’s worth the world if you ask me.

Atheist Delusions

I recently read and enjoyed David Bentley Hart’s, Atheist Delusions, especially after I had subjected myself to Richard Dawkins’, God Delusion, with quotes like this, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser: a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal…” (and the quote goes on ad nauseum).

This book is not a direct point-by-point response to men like Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, or Sam Harris.  It is a response to their twisted perspective of history which is full of error and logical inconsistency.  Mr. Hart writes, “…atheism that consists in vacuous arguments afloat on oceans of historical ignorance, made turbulent by storms of strident self-righteousness, is as contemptible as any other form of dreary fundamentalism.”

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is because he is honest and doesn’t gloss over or explain away the failures of previous Christians through the centuries.  Yet, he is very ruthless when he takes on the myths of popular culture that regurgitate the lies of men like Richard Dawkins who make Christianity responsible for plunging the Western world into a millennium of mental squalor (i.e., the “Dark Ages”).

One example is a quote from Jonathan Kirsch’s book, God Against the Gods, in which he describes a Christian mob attacking the ancient library of Alexandria and scorching all its books, the loss to Western civilization of which is beyond calculation or even imagination. Mr. Hart says of this myth, “…obviously he [Kirsch] is repeating in good faith a tale he has heard so often that he cannot distinguish it from fact. But it is quite absurd for all that.”  Mr. Hart then goes on to show what really historically happened. Throughout this book he deconstructs those kind of lies and myths aimed at the Christian faith.

I’m thankful for men like David Bentley Hart who defend our faith against “today’s gadflies [who] seem far lazier, less insightful, less subtle, less refined, more emotional, more ethically complacent, and far more interested in facile simplifications of history than in sober and demanding investigations of what Christianity has been or is.”