Are Christians Poor, Ignorant and Violent?

There are few minds today I find as interesting as Dinesh D'Souza's. The long-time conservative author and speaker has recently released his latest book, What's So Great About Christianity. Currently on the New York Times bestseller list, this piece has obviously stirred the pot putting Dinesh at the center of the God debate. A recent article from his blog described a radio debate he participated in on the Michael Medved show a couple weeks ago with the editor of Skeptic Magazine. Classic Dinesh:

"I debated atheist Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, yesterday on the Michael Medved radio show. It was a two hour debate, and conducted at a high level that is not characteristic of radio programs. The main focus of the debate was my bestselling book What's So Great About Christianity, and in the course of the discusson we covered a lot of topics from the fine-tuned universe to why humans evolved morality to whether Adam and Eve were real people.

Shermer, always ready with his ream of data, uncorked some fascinating statistics about how Christians are more prone to social pathologies than non-Christians. For example, the more-religious United States has higher crime rates than the less-religious Europe. In America, evangelical Christians are apparently more likely to be uneducated and to have higher violent crime rates than non-Christians. Shermer even cited a study showing that secular doctors were more likely to do voluntary work than Christian doctors. Shermer went on and on about all this, and I was waiting for him to reveal that Christians have a greater tendency to bestiality than secular folks, but to my surprise Shermer had no data on this subject.

Actually U.S. crime rates today are not substantially higher than those of Europe. That's because there has been a marked decline in violent crime in America. But even the old statistics prove nothing, because the U.S. is an ethnically diverse society, immigrant societies always have higher crime rates, and European countries typically don't have the black-and-white problem that is peculiar to America. Yes, evangelical Christians in America may be poorer and less educated than non-Christians, but that may be because evangelical Christians are more concentrated in the South. One can hardly conclude that evangelical Christianity makes you poor and dumb. Finally C.S. Lewis made the point that a religion like Christianity which advertises itself as a remedy for human sin and brokenness is bound to attract more people who find themselves to be sinful and broken. Christianity attracts sinners for the same reason that doctors attract patients: one can hardly hang out at the doctor's office and then condemn the service because predominantly messed-up people keep showing up day after day."

The Economist New Religion Issue

A recent issue of The Economist entitled, "The New Wars of Religion," ran an 18-page special on faith and politics...very good, although the generalizations made about Pentecostalism as the, "least intellectual (and most emotive) religion of all," were a just that, generalizations. Regardless, the article is well-worth the read as it captures very clearly the role and transformation of religion today. Below is a segment discussing the new role of choice in today's religious environment that I found most interesting:

"Choice is the most “modern” thing about contemporary religion. “We made a category mistake,” admits Peter Berger, the Boston sociologist, who was once one of the foremost champions of secularisation but changed his mind in the 1980s. “We thought that the relationship was between modernisation and secularisation. In fact it was between modernisation and pluralism.” Religion is no longer taken for granted or inherited; it is based around adults making a choice, going to a synagogue, temple, church or mosque.

This has a profound affect on public life. The more that people choose their religion, rather than just inherit it, the more likely they are to make a noise about it. Miroslav Volf, director of Yale's Centre for Faith and Culture, says this is showing up in the workplace too: “It used to be that workers hung their religion on a coat rack alongside their coats. At home, their religion mattered. At work, it was idle. That is no longer the case. For many people religion has something to say about all aspects of life, work included.”

3 Things To Live By

I read something great this morning in The Message. The last few verses in 1Corinthians 13:

"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."

I have read these verses many times in other translations and heard them even more...isn't it amazing how familiarity allows you to gloss over a great message. Faith, hope and love...and the greatest is love...yeah, yeah, yeah. But, the Word of God is alive and active and this morning it got me. We have three things to do....this is obviously important, a direct command, a narrowing-down of seemingly endless duties. First we must trust steadily....steadily trust....in God. Then hope....lose hope and you die. Then love extravagantly....man, extravagantly...it seemed much more attainable when it was just little love at the end of the list....faith, hope and love. But, to love extravagantly is something different entirely. And not only that, it is the best of the three...love is the greatest.