I accomplished something in the midst of this summer’s angst that was both surprising and gratifying. In thirty days, about 20 minutes at a whack, I read a somewhat stout volume of contemporary apologetics. Every day, I bundled John off into the cancer center for his head shot of radiation, and since I was not allowed in most days, (Covid, you know), I sat on the sidewalk outside (the benches were in the sun, and you may recall that it was HOT this August and September) and plowed through Confronting Christianity: Twelve hard questions for the world’s largest religion by Rebecca McLaughlin.
Twenty minutes was about all I could absorb at a sitting, but 30 days was enough, down to the last page on the last day. It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up anything like apologetics, so I appreciate the small gift of this diversion from my regular routine and standard reading fare. This particular book was standing up on a shelf outside the library at the church and I was of a mind to merely browse when I checked it out. Didn’t think I’d actually read it cover to cover.
Anyway…apologetics is the theology and argumentation in defense of Christian belief and hope. McLaughlin does the usual work of examining historical and current presentations of the major world religions (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, atheism, agnosticism), taking their foundational beliefs to their logical conclusions to show that they each in turn are insufficient to support a code of ethics that does not devolve into utter relativism. Her parallel presentations enumerate the ways that the Christian religion based on a personal sovereign Creator do lay the foundation for a sustainable morality that truly honors every individual in their personhood.
While doing this standard apologetic work, she spends a bit of time picking apart the idea that Christianity is a Western excuse to rule the world with an iron fist. She begins by pointing out that, courtesy of the dispersed and obedient early church, Christianity was found all around the globe, from Africa to India to China, before Western missionaries arrived. She gives an unflinching appraisal of the ways the Western version of Christianity has given Jesus Christ’s Christianity a really bad name through history—imperialism or the Crusades, for example. Then she also just as unflinchingly points out the ways the other major religions have perpetrated the same kinds of horrors under their own banners.
From “Aren’t We Better Off without Religion?” to How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?” McLaughlin tackles the big issues of racism, slavery, male vs. female, sexuality, the place of science, suffering, and how a loving God could send people to hell. Unlike a lot of apologetics, which tends to academic stuffiness, this book reads easy. It’s full of compelling examples and illustrations. It is not abrasive or divisive, drawing lines in the sand with heavy artillery of good vs. evil. I found it to be persistent, insistent, and gentle for the most part.
It is rather disarming, brightened by personal tidbits that make her relatable, startlingly so as she reveals the experiences of her sexual identity. She includes many testimonies of former other-than-Christians who have confronted the same questions she asks and who came to the same conclusion, namely that Christianity is not the universe’s problem, but rather the grace-and life-filled solution.
While for the most part this book is well grounded in research, both scientific and theological, one thing seemed to keep cropping up throughout: she would occasionally drop in a blanket statement upon which seemed to ride the whole of a point she made, but she left the statement alone without walking through the logic or language of the interpretation, no statistic or other support.
For example, on page 68 she states
If the world were a single democracy in which every human being had a vote and we asked this electorate to nominate a belief system on which to ground morality, Christianity would win.
I began to feel like if she did unpack it all, the “proof” would be there, but I also felt like she left a lot for the unconvinced to accept at face value, which is strange in a book of apologetics. [Also, I do recognize that were she to address every possible point in satisfactory depth, this book would come in multiple volumes or be so huge that few people would bother to pick it up or slog through its length.]
Another thing that struck me very early in the book, and which remained throughout, is that instead of only placing the argument at the feet of the written Bible, instead of pinning all the rebuttal on the intellectual theological framework and leaving it there, she goes further. She points out the myriad ways that what we experience here on earth, while it is the only reality we can really know right now, it is still only a shadow of the things to come, a weak substitute for our eventual spiritual consummation with Jesus Christ. She calls us to look beyond what we perceive as our rights and fulfillment here on earth to the bewildering and hard to comprehend reality of the new creation. The continual reminder is to not remain fixed upon the current, broken original.
The point is that this reality draws us beyond our rights to be safe from abuse in all its forms, be it slavery or racism or misogyny, beyond our rights to not endure physical pain or broken relationships or unfulfilled potential. Jesus Christ came to earth in part to secure these human rights for us, and Christianity does both well and poorly at establishing them and defending them for us. Ultimately however, Jesus Himself is our life, not the fulfillment of our rights while we’re here.
Every day I struggle to belief in Jesus’ world. I do not mean this in the sense of mental assent. For the reasons laid out in this book, I find the alternatives less compelling. But I struggle in the heart sense of living this truth: denying myself, taking up my cross, believing that Jesus is my life. And yet, every day I find the fingerprints of this impossible man in my life, calling me into a story so much greater and more exhilarating than my own little life could ever be. [page 221-222, emphasis hers]
What does this mean—that Jesus is my life? What does it mean for me in practical terms? How do I communicate this to people struggling to find themselves and their place in the world? This is the challenge that has spoken loudest to me.
…
If you’re looking for answers to your own questions around some of these headline issues, or for material with which to engage someone else, I’d suggest picking up Confronting Christianity: Twelve hard questions for the world’s largest religion. Your library should have it, or here’s the link to my favorite used book site. I think you could read a chapter and find solid ideas to guide your thinking without needing to read the whole book. As I said, it’s entirely readable, even if you’re regularly distracted by people walking past and the sweat dripping off your nose.
Toward the promise,
Lana
Through the Bible in a Year Reading Plan and Challenge
The two books to Timothy and the one to Titus are called the pastoral epistles, written by Paul near the end of his life to two younger men he is charging to shepherd parts of the flock. These three books are chock full of practical instruction regarding church organization and discipline, including matters of false teachers, the roles of women, and maintaining purity of doctrine.
1 and 2 Timothy are favorites of mine. They contain some shining jewels of encouragement that can be taken to heart, whether or not we are pastors, such as For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
Sunday, October 24 Catch up and reflect
Monday, October 25 Jeremiah 1-3, 1 Timothy 1
Tuesday, October 26 Jeremiah 4-5, 1 Timothy 2
Wednesday, October 27 Jeremiah 6-7, 1 Timothy 3
Thursday, October 28 Jeremiah 8-9, 1 Timothy 4
Friday, October 29 Jeremiah 10-11, 1 Timothy 5-6
Saturday, October 30 Jeremiah 12-15, 2 Timothy 1
Question for this week’s reading: What advice does Paul give to Timothy regarding his challenges as a young minister?
This is the link to last week’s issue, Baggage and weirdness.
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