Beware. The new, politically correct intolerance is aimed in general at people of faith and in particular at Christians.
How about this book that was reviewed and praised in the New York Times. The End of Faith by Sam Harris. “Our technical advances in the art of war have finally rendered our religious differences—and hence our religious beliefs—antithetical to our survival. We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the book of Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the faithful for millennia—because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that these developments mark the terminal phase of our dredulity—words like ‘God’ and ‘Allah’ must go the way of ‘Apollo’ and ‘Baal,’ or they will unmake our world.”
I have bopped around the Internet in the days since the election, reading blogs and articles, and the things I’ve read blow me away in the shrillness of voice and the hatred leveled at people who hold any view other than theirs. The very fact that 51% of Americans voted differently from the other 49% makes that 51% a bunch of religious idiots who couldn’t possibly have anything worthwhile between their ears or anything intelligent to say.
This should not surprise me (even though it does). The Bible told of it long, long ago:
The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written,
I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots.
So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb — preaching, of all things! — to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.
While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle — and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself — both Jews and Greeks — Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.”
(1 Cor 1:18-25, Msg)
To which I say, Thank You, Jesus.
-rlh-
