Are Christians Intolerant? (continued)

…This feeble attempt of a letter.

The paper actually printed it but edited out a good portion of it. So, if anyone happens to see it in print, avert your eyes. Read this version instead (though, even that may not be a good idea. I may have overreached a bit on a few statements. But he who has short arms must reach further…farther…whatever).

“It is commonly said that humans are feeling beings who happen to think rather than thinking beings who happen to feel. But think we must. When Christians stop thinking, dire consequences can result. The Presbyterian theologian and Princeton Seminary professor J. Gresham Machen wrote back in 1913(!) that 'one of the greatest problems that have agitated the Church is the problem of the relation between knowledge and piety, between culture and Christianity….The problem is made for us the more difficult of solution because we are unprepared for it. Our whole system of school and college education is so constituted as to keep religion and culture as far apart as possible and ignore the question of the relationship between them.' The sad truth, according to Machen, is that 'the chief obstacle to the Christian religion today lies in the sphere of the intellect….The Church is perishing today through the lack of thinking, not through an excess of it.' (Christianity and Culture, published in the Princeton Theological Review, Vol.11, 1913).

The fact that young Christians today are virtually indistinguishable from their non-Christian peers when it comes to embracing relativism is a sad commentary on the state of the Church. Yes, people are having their spiritual needs met, and yes, people are finding peace and contentment in a community of like-minded brothers and sisters. But where is the cultural and intellectual engagement that characterized much of the history of the Church? Today most of that engagement by Christians is happening either in academia or in parachurch organizations. In contrast the local church, by and large, has abdicated the life of the mind to secular culture. As a result, evangelical Christians are struggling to make any progress influencing the culture for Christ. One thinks of the same-sex marriage debate where many Christians, when asked why they opposed gay marriage, could only answer with “It’s against my religious beliefs”. In addition, many Christians are unable to “make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you” (1 Peter 3:15). If anyone thinks this is an overstatement, read Frank Stirk’s cover story again and then ask some Christians in your church some questions of basic biblical and theological knowledge (make sure you include your pastor and elders).

It’s rather remarkable that otherwise intelligent people, people who have spent years of study and lots of money achieving success in their profession, have no more than a Sunday School knowledge of their faith. It should be no surprise then that the children of these Christians also lack knowledge of their own faith. Surely though, if a relationship with the living Lord of the universe is the most important thing in their lives they should spend some time reading serious Christian books (of which there are plenty. Check out the Regent College Bookstore for confirmation of this fact.) If they object that it’s too hard, then it could be pointed out that it’s also hard to study to become a doctor, nurse, engineer, architect, economist, auto technician, skilled tradesperson, etc. Worthwhile things take some effort..

The Church needs Christians who are characterized by both spiritual devotion to our Lord and intellectual prowess. We ought to emulate Jesus who was the most loving and kind person to ever live and also, as Dallas Willard has put it, the smartest man who ever lived. (It’s tempting to exempt myself from my own admonition since I’m neither kind nor intelligent; however, with God’s help…)

The Fundamentalist withdrawal from culture during the early twentieth century basically removed many of God’s people from the center of the battle for minds, allowing secular forms of thought to become dominant in the universities and bastions of cultural influence such as newspapers and television. Unless evangelicals choose to enter the fray of the intellectual battles all around us, it will make evangelism and discipleship even more difficult in the twenty-first century than it was in the twentieth.”

I think I’ll be more forgiving of letters to the editor whose ideas appear somewhat disjointed and the prose a bit jarring, because I’ll know that the writer was the victim (er, recipient) of the big editorial red pen. (What my excuse is, though, I’m not sure.)