Church Under Attack

Does it seem to you that the press has to take occasional shots at Christianity? Two articles that I read recently want to poke fun, malign or otherwise discredit those that believe in God or attend church.

The first is something that I read in an old Wall Street Journal. (You can find the whole text on this blog.) The gist of the article talks about how our brains are wired in such a way that we may believe that there is a God (regardless if there is one– is the implication). The reason? That our brains are wired to want to find the best out of something, to look for the option that makes sense and that we believe. There is this one quote that was telling:

In one of those strange-bedfellows things, it is science that is shedding light on why belief in God will never die, at least until humans evolve very different brains that don’t … interpret unexpected and even unwanted outcomes as being for the best.

Do you see the bias in this statement? It’s almost like the author is saying “God will continue to exist until we can evolve far enough to the point that we no longer have to believe in Him. Although I find the next quote more interesting:

“Belief in God,” says Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University, “is compelled by the way our brains work.”

Now that I can totally get behind, since I believe that we were created by God with a yearning or a belief in God “burned” into us. It also explains why, even in the absence of knowing the true God, people will worship things around them.

If it’s not the scientists, it’s the politicians that are attempting to discredit Christians. Alexandra Pelosi went to the heartland, the Bible Belt, in an attempt to document fundamental Christianity. She was escorted by Ted Haggard of recent scandal fame, and the commentary about her film tells what she found:

Still, the parts of the film that were most troubling were not about abortion or gay marriage or even the incredibly pathetic attacks on evolution. Rather, it was the willingness of evangelicals, young and old, to accept as figurative and literal gospel anything and everything fed to them by authority figures. They appear as automatons, unable or unwilling to question the pronouncements of their leaders.

Also difficult to watch were those who, despite having elected a born-again president and established giant radio and TV networks and a political power base second to none, still feel they are a persecuted minority. If Pelosi’s intent is to show that evangelical faith suffocates reason, the point is well-made.

Now, who knows if this is an accurate reflection of what goes on in these churches, but I have two comments:

First, I can agree that people should not accept everything told them by the preacher– but they should test that which comes to them against the Word of God. I think it’s a stinging indictment on the state of modern day Christianity that people seem to be focused on individual leaders more than on Christ. We live in a time where cults of personality are created and people focus on a person almost to the exclusion of Christ– this is wrong.

Second, I take exception to the whole “evangelical faith suffocates reason.” It’s the same argument in the first piece– on one hand we have science/reason in the other religion. These people won’t go into the historical evidence of the Scripture. They won’t dig deep into the founding documents. They let people that are lead about by personality characterize the whole Christian movement. That’s wrong when it’s characterizing all Democrats and it’s wrong when characterizing the entire church.