Conservative or evangelical Christians are anti-science, stupid, hateful hypocrites. The evangelical community consists of liars and the deluded, mindless followers of the liars who deny science.
That's the message I see day in and day out in everything from Facebook updates from people who are listed as my friends to tweets and television broadcasts from celebrities such as Bill Maher, and so many others.
Consider this recent tweet from actor Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) to film critic Roger Ebert:
RT @ebertchicago Evangelical professors in trouble for doubting Adam and Eve//"evangelical think tank"=priceless!
The idea of an evangelical think tank is funny? I think it is safe to say McKean hasn't bothered to attend a conference of the
Evangelical Theological Society or the
Evangelical Philosophical Society, or check out Glenn M. Miller's
Christian Think Tank.
Now, I might have the same opinions and so rudely state them, complete with sarcasm and derision and mocking of others, if I based my opinions on what I was told by sources with a demonstrable anti-evangelical bias such as the
New York Times,
Newsweek,
Time, on CNN, MSNBC, Leftist books, radio and websites, depictions in primtetime television, and if my main exposure to "evangelicals" consisted of the likes of some of the more showy personalities on TBN.
But to judge evangelicals by watching a few minutes of TBN is like judging all athletes based on watching a few minutes of WWE.
There are serious evangelical thinkers whose work isn't difficult to find.
How many of these people, who do not hesitate to insult and dismiss a significant minority population of the nation*, have ever sat through a
single service in an evangelical church? Anyone can
listen to services online, though doing so does not allow one to mingle with the people attending the services, so one can still listen to the services while still assuming that everyone in attendance is a freak. How about listening to something from
Chuck Swindoll or
John MacArthur? How about reading just one issue of
First Things,
Touchstone, or the
Christian Research Journal (go ahead and highlight the factually incorrect statements, the logical fallacies, and the unsubstantiated claims and tweet them)?
How many of these people have ever bothered to read or listen to anything by any of the following when addressing what they believe and why, and what it means for how they live:
William Lane Craig
J.P. Moreland
Gary Habermas
Chuck Colson
Francis Beckwith
Greg Koukl
R.C. Sproul
Hugh Hewitt
Nancy Pearcey
Joni Eareckson Tada
Francis Schaffer
Josh McDowell
Frank Turek
Dinesh D'Souza
William Dembski
Hugh Ross
Peter Kreeft
Paul Copan
Max Lucado
N.T. Wright
All of these writers have their critics, of course,
but will any of these famous people who so casually shout their disdain for the intellectual capacity of evangelicals please name which one of those listed is or was uneducated, illogical, or stupid? Which of them are hypocrites, hateful, or reject the scientific method as a way of gaining knowledge? Don't merely make assertions based on what someone else tells you; go to the source.
"Evangelical" is certainly not antintellectual, antireason, or antiscience. What makes someone an evangelical Christian? Generally, our beliefs can be boiled down to what is found in
these three creeds, and we believe the Bible to be the authority in how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and be His disciples, we believe in serving others, and we believe in making disciples through proclaiming and defending the Gospel. We don't leave our faith in the pews six and a half days out of the week or only mention it during certain holidays, at our weddings, or at funerals - rather, we try to live by our faith
in every aspect of our lives. How does any of that imply we don't think?
I'm an evangelical because of thinking, not because a lack of thinking. The Bible, and the leaders from whom I've learned, have encouraged people to use their
minds – to be reasonable and use sound judgment, to discern truth from error; I'm to love God with all of my
mind. Christianity is the only major religion that depends on events that either happened in history or they didn't; we are called to believe
because those things happened, not to just believe blindly, or because of a feeling.
I have taken comparative religion courses. I graduated from a secular university after attending schools teaching anything but evangelical teachings for my entire formal education. It's not that evangelicals have ignored or irrationally dismissed what our critics have said. I'm barraged with assertions and claims that run counter to my beliefs many times every day, whether in the media or via social networking or anywhere out in public. Every Easter and Christmas season, we can expect another round of television broadcasts and features in periodicals that claim to debunk some core Christian belief or popular Biblical account.
Dear critics and mockers, we hear you and read you constantly. You're unavoidable. We've studied other faith traditions and claims. We have read the arguments of atheists. We've heard your claims of alleged fatal contradictions in the Bible, forgery and plagiarism, your assertion that miracles could never have happened, your claims that the God of the Bible is cruel, evil, or otherwise lacking. We've heard it all, and we'll keep hearing it.
We have thought things through, and we have arrived at a reasonable faith.
I don't automatically think that all Wiccans, Muslisms, observant Jews, people who identify as Christians but not evangelical, secular humanists, atheists, agnostics, New Agers, Buddhists, Hindus, or others are stupid or ignorant, or that they don't think. Why are there so many people like McKean that dismiss evangelicals as thoughtless?
Go ahead, Mr. McKean - why don't you try calling up Greg Koukl while he is doing his radio show, and expose him for the thoughtless man he must be. I'd love to hear that. Better yet, ask to join him in studio. I challenge you, and anyone else who thinks that evangelicals are not serious, careful thinkers, to do some reading and listening, attend some classes at a school like Biola, or otherwise see what serious evangelicals have to say. You might be a little more respectful, and enjoy some diversity while you're at it.
= = =
*About 40% of Americans have identified as born-again or evangelical Christians. (Anyone who follows the true Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is born-again and a Christian, so the terms are redundant.) And yet how often have we heard that these Christians are just like the Islamofascist terrorists? The mocking of such Christians and their beliefs demonstrates the comparison to be ridiculous and slanderous, as I have yet to see Christians rioting, doing suicide bombings, and doing decapitations on webcams in response to the mocking.
