Dying for a bible

Recent reports out of North Korea indicate the harsh and brutal treatment of Christians there continues.  In June a woman accused of distributing Bibles, a book banned by the communist government, was publicly executed for her“crime.”  Executed!  She was 33 years old and the mother of 3 children.  According to The Investigative Commission on Crime Against Humanity report, the woman’s husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her execution. An estimated 6,000 Christians are jailed in “Prison #15″  in the north of the country, with the religious prisoners getting the worst of treatment.  So much for the claim some atheists make that “religion is the cause of all the world’s ills.”  If executing a mother of three children for giving away Bibles isn’t ill — I’m not sure what is.  

In Seoul, South Korea, activists denounce North Korea's policies on religion.

Once again, the words of Dr. Alister McGrath ring true.  In his book, “The Twilight of Atheism:  The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World, McGrath [Christian theologian with a background in history, science and molecular biophysics] writes the following historical observation regarding atheism:

The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history; that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence.

Americans and religion

A report came out last Monday on religious life in America. Did you see it? It was all over Newspapers, TV, and Internet. According a recent survey [American Religious Identification Survey] 15% of Americans now claim no religious affiliation. What is interesting is that for some Christians it’s easy to hear that percentage and be pessimistic, lament and say “Woe is us, America is going to hell in hand basket because they don’t like God.”  As a not so conventional follower of Jesus might I suggest we consider an alternative explanation?

If you read the study carefully, you begin to understand that the 15% statistic doesn’t reflect a growing disbelief in God per se – it simply reflects a growing disillusionment with organized religion in this country. Many people in America are becoming increasingly tired of what they perceive to be [right or wrong] the hypocrisy, bureaucracy and spiritual emptiness of lukewarm legalistic institutionalized religiosity. They’re not giving up on God – they’re giving up religion – because they have discovered it doesn’t work – it just makes you feel guilty, tires you out and let’s you down.

This is not unlike the culture of Jesus’ day. Many of the Jews in 1st cent Israel were fed up with what faith in God had become – an elaborate convoluted bureaucratic system of religious works, rituals, legalistic requirements, tepid liturgy, ceremony and showmanship.

Religious Judaism wasn’t drawing men and women closer to God, it was pushing them further away. People were tired of trying to keep the law, tired of trying to look good enough and be good enough for God to love and accept them. Many realized they just couldn’t do it. Then Jesus came a long and said stop trying, stop working, stop attempting to earn and perform your way into relationship with God. He said, “Come to me you who are weary [burdened by religion] and I will give you rest for your souls.” Jesus brough to and lived out before the people of his day the message and reality of God’s grace – his unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor and goodness. Suddenly those who were religiously disillusioned became spiritually alive.

Maybe I’m weird, but I look at our culture and see this trend of religious disillusionment and simply realize people are looking for God not religion. To me, that’s a good thing.

a voice of reason

This past weekend I had the unique opportunity to spend three days with a small group of people and Dinesh D’Souza author of numerous books the latest of which is entitled, What’s So Great about Christianity.

While being a NY Times best-selling author and speaker, D’Souza spends much of his time in public debates with leading atheists all of whom are increasingly puzzled by the continued existence and vitality of religion worldwide…what Richard Dawkins refers to as a “virus of the mind.”

It was a fascinating time with Dinesh. He is personable, funny and incredibly brilliant. Here is a clip of him in a debate with Christopher Hitchens addressing the atheist assertion that religion is the cause of violence and conflicts of the world.

Penn Jillette is grateful

Along with being a magician / comedian, Penn Jillette is a firm atheist. Yet, he has an interesting take on a guy who, despite knowing Jillette’s view on God, recently gave him a gift and complimented his talents. Jillette was obviously moved and impressed by such respectful kindness…so much so, he recorded this video blog…

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…Do to others
as you would have them do to you.
-Jesus

what would you change about the world?

A local newspaper – the Daily Herald is currently publishing a series of “get to know you” type interviews with local [DuPage county] public school administrators. For example, Tuesday’s paper featured a 34 year old, married, mother of two, middle school principal. The writer of the article presented the long time educator with a number of questions related to family, career, interests, opinions, etc. One of the last questions asked was this;

If you could change one thing about the world…it would be?

Her answer was quite disturbing. She responded,

Eliminate ALL religions. All the negativity that exists in today’s society is due to religious beliefs: wars, hatred, racism.

Now I don’t know if this person considers herself an official “atheist” or merely a religious antagonist, but her comment took me by surprise. Could someone who is well educated and supposedly committed to academic excellence really hold to this opinion? Apparently so. To assert that religion is the root cause of war, hatred, racism, suffering, indeed all the world’s ills, is a spurious position that is limited in scope as well as historically and logically flawed.

In all fairness, while religion has done a lot of good in the world [obviously not a consideration of this principal], we must concede it can be divisive and lead to conflict, cruelty, terrorism and war. History proves this. However, history also proves that efforts at outlawing religion have produced the same kind of sad results. There have been several massive atheistic efforts to suppress, and ultimately eliminate, religion of any kind. In the 20th century, Soviet Russia, the Khmer Rouge, Cuba and Communist China were all determined to keep religion from dividing society or eroding the power of the state. The result was not more peace and harmony, but more suffering and oppression. Atheism can claim no less responsibility when it comes to the world realities of war, hatred, racism and suffering.

In his book, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World [2004], Dr. Alister McGrath [Christian theologian with a background in history, science and molecular biophysics] writes the following historical observation regarding atheism:

The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history; that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence.

My point here is not to dismiss or humiliate the principal who was simply sharing her opinion about the problems of the world with a local newspaper reporter. Rather, it is to note that a growing number of people in our culture, educated or not, carry a negative view of organized religion including, but not limited to, Christianity. Listening to and understanding their opinion and knowing how to respond in kind is important. But logical argumentation alone will not change public opinion. As Christians, as the Church, we must intentionally engage such skeptics not simply with words but acts and attitudes of love, compassion and grace.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

-Colossians 4:5-6

Ray