The New Atheism movement - led in part (de-facto) by professors: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens - is an evangelical form of atheism that is a departure from the atheism of the past. For most of history, those who do not believe in God have simply not believed in God and let those who do, believe what they wanted to believe. Today however that is not the case. We are seeing them now move into an evangelical wave that wants to convert the world into no-longer accepting God.
At first look this seems peculiar. An evangelical (in nature, not conservative belief-structure) Christian makes sense. I want to share my beliefs with those around me (and the world for that matter) because I have found salvation. The world is broken and I know the answer and the redemption. But why would an atheist care to want everyone else to believe as he or she does? What is appealing and worthy of proselytizing about believing that this life is the only thing we have? Well they have a few other answers for this, but one in particular came to me tonight in a terrible flurry of clarity:
The Gospel is no longer good news.
Now, before you decide that I am a heretic, listen to what I mean by that statement.
Christians today are known (most popularly) for many things including: the crusades, hating homosexuals, and blowing up abortion clinics. The men and women preaching the gospel of rationalism and atheism are trying to save the world from the intolerance and hatred that "Jesus' followers" are inflicting upon our world. When you see it this way, it makes perfect sense that they are evangelistic. Why wouldn't they want to spread this?
When Jesus spoke of his followers he said that they will be known by their love. (John 13:35) Why is this not what we are known by? We have turned the gospel into something that it is not. Now, obviously we cannot change the past. The crusades will always be a huge scar on Christianity that we cannot change, but we do not have to continue in our ways.
Imagine what the world would be like if all Christians truly followed Christ. The Bible repeatedly tells us that what God requires is: To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8). What if we loved? The world would be a different place. If we defined our lives by caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt us. (James 1:27) That's truly good news.
If we were living like this, perhaps Richard Dawkins and his colleagues would join our little revolution of love, or if nothing else, pat us on the back for doing something good in the world. There would be no reason to evangelize atheism. What would they be rebelling against? What would be upsetting about people changing the world in Jesus' name?
So, though I don't think they will ever read my little blog, I want to apologize to Mr. Dawkins, and Mr. Hitchens, and Mr. Harris: I am sorry for all the terrible things that have been done in the name of Christ. We have messed up. I hope that you can begin to look past the things that have been done and look to the future and what we can accomplish. I hope that you will see the love of God in us.
I say all of this because I do not think we will ever find the perfect "proof" for God. Or perhaps amass enough evidence that it is impossible for a rational person to not believe in God. So why don't we try love? Let's start loving as Jesus did and commanded us to love. Let's see if that can have an impact. I believe that this is truly the only way that we can change people's hearts. That is the proof that the world is crying out for.
Grace and Peace.
2 comments:
I really like this. If everyone on all sides just did less "evangelism" and more actual love I think the world could be a much better place.
Well I totally agree with the more love thing, I just think that it's not necessarily doing less evangelism. It's doing t correctly. I believe in "Loving the Hell out of people", not "Scaring the Hell out of them"...
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