WHAT ARE THEY FRIGHTENED OF?

In today’s blog, I want to turn the tables on a favourite anti-Christian argument. After all, isn’t it time the anti-religion brigade had a taste of their own ‘medicine’?

How many times have we, as Christians, been challenged as to how same-sex marriage will hurt us? (Lots of ways, actually, but that’s not my point today.) How many times have we been told that profanity, sexual promiscuity and blasphemy are OK on TV because “if you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it”? How many times have we been accused of trying to stuff our religion down people’s throats?

Well I happen to believe that Christianity should be a privileged faith in Australia. As Cory Bernardi so eloquently points out, the freedoms and riches that we enjoy in this country have come about through the Christian heritage that has always (until now) undergirded our sense of who we are.

Christian churches, rather than mosques or temples, have always dotted our towns and regional areas. We celebrate Christmas and Easter, not Ramadan or Hanukka. The Bible, not the Quran, has been our moral compass. Our Parliament still acknowledges God as does our Constitution.

So what are they so afraid of? What terrible things do they think will happen to their children if they are taught about Jesus and Christianity for half an hour each week? Do they imagine that Christians will formally gag anyone who dares disagree with their beliefs? Well that’s what they continually try to do to us, so maybe they’re frightened that, if Christians actually were allowed to speak up, that we might reverse our own Golden Rule and do to them what they have been doing to us!

I sometimes wonder how a truly Christian society would handle social problems like pornography, drug abuse and sexual promiscuity. I think we would have to discern between victims and perpetrators. We would have to show compassion on the former and prosecute the latter. For instance, we would not lock gays and lesbians in prison but our laws would prevent them from proselytizing, especially among children and teenagers. We would not forbid Buddhists or Muslims from practising their religion but we would not allow them to impose their culture on us, eg by bringing in aspects of Sharia law. We would respect all law-abiding, peace-loving people but we would expect the same respect in return, eg there would be laws prohibiting blasphemy against Jesus or God.

A truly Christian society would actually be a wonderful society, with a rich but fair culture, and the Church in Australia still has the opportunity to demonstrate that – in our own ranks to begin with.

I’ll tell you why people are afraid of Christians having any power in our nation. They don’t want their freedom to sin to be curtailed in any way. They are willing to tolerate other religions coming in if it means that Christianity is locked away in a box, preferably a coffin-shaped one. They want Australia’s social conscience to be forever silenced, so they can be free to do whatever they want, whenever they want. In biblical terms, they want to cast off all restraint (Proverbs 29:18).

Our goal as Christians, living as a Christian subculture, is not to “shove our religion” down anyone’s throat, but to demonstrate the benefits of a culture based on righteousness. This is the all-important challenge of the times in which we live.

DOES CHRISTIANITY LEAD TO CLOSED MINDS

Today I’d like to address what I think is a very important question. Does Christianity lead to closed minds?

To begin the discussion, let me first confess that the prevailing attitude in the Pentecostal church when I first became a born-again Christian was: “God said it – I believe it – that settles it!” Hey, I even had a poster on my wall, purchased from the little bookstall at church, with exactly those words.

As a young teenager with no real understanding of theology, it was not a bad thing for me that the Bible was treated as the ultimate authority on all things spiritual. I still believe that the Bible is true and exceedingly “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).”

But I have long since abandoned the old habits I acquired (no fault of the churches I attended, I hasten to add) whereby a single verse, in context or otherwise, was sufficient to end any debate.

Some fellow Christians from those early years were notoriously narrow-minded in this regard. They had made up their minds (on pretty much everything) and showed no patience for those unfortunate souls who were not so biblically enlightened.

When it came to witnessing to those who didn’t, as yet, believe in Christ, these fellow Christians were ruthless in their compassion for the lost and impatient of actual dialogue.

This kind of polemic Christianity seems to have faded somewhat as the times got more and more complicated. But I submit that, in general terms, today’s Christians are more likely to have done the intellectual work to establish a credible worldview than most non-Christians. They are more likely to apply sound logic in expressing their points of view, and they are more likely to try to understand other people’s views.

I love what Jesus said when “a certain lawyer” asked Him what was required to obtain eternal life. Jesus responded with two profound questions. “"What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? (Luke 10:26)"

In posing these two questions, Jesus addressed the issue of Bible interpretation. We must first discern what the Bible actually says. Then, and only then, we consider its meaning.

So yes, Christianity can, for some people, lead to a closing of the mind, but it most certainly should not. Nor should any refusal to think critically about matters of faith be characteristic of Christian culture.

CHOOSING CULTURE BY DEFAULT

There are some things in life that we don’t get to choose. Our parents, where we are born, our racial characteristics, our DNA, our gender. (OK some people these days like to think that we choose our gender – I won’t touch that hot potato here. The fact remains that, at birth, the overwhelming majority of us are either male or female.)

Moving on…

In today’s blog, I would like to question the common assumption that our culture is another predetermined reality. Culture is not something that we are born with but something that we may be born into. If I am born into a Christian family, or a Muslim family, or whatever, the culture of these things will be progressively incorporated into our lives, depending on a significant number of variables.

But, to the extent that I can look at cultures objectively, I can accept or reject aspects of those cultures. Some Americans, for instance, choose to distance themselves from the gun culture that prevails in parts of their nation. Young people in many cultures these days reject some aspects of the traditional culture that they were born into. Personally, I have chosen to distance myself from the alcohol culture that typifies Australian culture.

Western culture is often dictated by the fluctuating trends of popular media. It is a fluid culture with only the vaguest possible underpinning worldview. As a young man coming to faith in Christ, I realized quickly enough that “worldly” culture was not something that I wanted to build my life on. I realized that, to a very real extent, I could choose my own culture.

There are, no doubt, sociologists and anthropologists who would strenuously deny what I have just written. They would say that I am simply unaware of the extent to which I have imbibed the culture I grew up in. Choosing a different culture to that into which we were born is difficult but, with enough cultural awareness, it is certainly possible.

I believe that Christianity is more than  a belief system. It is, in fact, a fully rounded culture, with a definite worldview, a relationship with a loving God, a whole set of moral standards and paradigms for living.

If we accept Christ on an intellectual or emotional level, but continue to live in some other culture, our walk with Him often fails. But when we choose to follow Christ with our whole life, adapting our lifestyle accordingly, the Christian culture becomes a powerful unifying force in our lives.

In this blog, I always aim to demonstrate the benefits of Christian culture. But for today, the message is simply that we can all choose to live the Christian life. We can choose a vague worldly culture by default or we can deliberately choose Christian culture.