Friendly Christians

Recently, I have come in contact with some very religious people through my involvement in KU Students for Life group as well as the Men of Valor conference.  While reflecting upon these experiences, I decided it was appropriate to post a few thoughts.  First, as the name implies, the Students for Life is a group that peacefully and respectfully promotes the pro-life message without the use of shocking or offensive imagery.  We have some exciting events planned in the upcoming months, which I will write about soon.  Secondly, Men of Valor is a one-day conference designed to equip men in college and older in the daily fight for sexual integrity, accountability, and purity.  

After seeing the love and good intentions of people at both of these experiences, it’s easy to see how one can become disillusioned and even angry with the new atheist movement.  Here’s a quote from Christopher Hitchens:

“Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason; it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from mammals.  It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me.  Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.”

I can see how demeaning beliefs that people hold near and dear as “sinister”, “surrendering” and “overrated” can be hurtful and cutting.  It’s important to distinguish between the two types of truth when we talk about faith.  Most reasonable people will agree that the stories in Genesis did not literally happen.  The majority of Christians do not accept the Bible as literal history.  Here’s another quote from Richard Dawkins:

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.  Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

The people I see in Students for Life and Men of Valor are not “copping-out”.  They are compassionate, concerned individuals who have a sincere desire to make a positive change in the world.  One speaker at Men of Valor has dedicated his life to stopping human trafficking at truck stops across the United States.  He quotes Isaiah 5:8-30 as his primary motivation.  He has observed injustice in the world, and he is doing everything within his power to stop said injustice.  Is this faith-filled man “sinister”, “surrendering” or a “cop-out”.  I hardly think so.  About two weeks ago, around 6 people from Students for Life went to Washington D.C. to take part in the March for Life.  Complacent people will tell you that nothing will ever be accomplished on the abortion issue.  You will hear them say it is impossible to make progress because it is such a controversial and polarizing issue.  While some of their concerns might be true, that is no excuse to give up on doing everything in your power to make a difference for what you believe is right.  Are these students, all of whom are Catholic, guilty of “not wanting to know what is true.” as Friedrich Nietzsche once noted?

Life is hard enough without being criticized and belittled for the beliefs you hold.  I wish I saw more love in the world.  I wonder if there will ever be a day when humans are no longer violent, cruel, evil, or greedy.  A world where nothing but pure goodness emanates from all human beings.  We help each other out, make each other smile, and love one another with every fiber of our beings.  Maybe I am just an idealistic romantic, but this is the world I one day want to reside in.