Do we really have a Christian worldview?

Christianity is a distinct worldview in the best sense of the term. It is a way of understanding the world around you, your place in the world and the purpose of life. Christianity says that the world matters to the one who created it as good, you matter to the God who created you in His image, and the purpose of your life is bound up in Him and your life matters and has meaning, but not a meaning you determine independently of your creator, who alone knows the purpose for which you were created.

A Christian worldview allows me to see creation, time and space, as coherent and moving towards something. Science says that in beginning was an explosion and that everything that is the universe was set in motion moving away from everything else and that expansion continues to the present day. What Christianity says is that this particular planet and the life on it matters to God enough that HE came in the form of Jesus and died in order that this life form might continue to live forever. There is something unique about us in the cosmos.

It is that worldview that impels Christians to go to places and do things that are dangerous and that might cost them their lives. Even extreme sports measure risk better than Christians. Base jumping might be risky but no one does it without a parachute. Since the day of Pentecost Christians have chosen to take risks that they knew were likely to result in death but not with the despair and hopelessness of suicide, but rather in affirmation that my life matters. It matters enough that I am willing to risk it on behalf of the Gospel and on behalf of others.

It is easy to pick on Richard Dawkins but the truth is that Christianity as a worldview is different from Dawkins' worldview in that people who have a truly Christian worldview will take risks that Dawkins' worldview would never demand. The one thing I will say is that Dawkins is willing to risk popularity for his worldview and most western Christians aren't willing to do the same. It is easier to keep your head down and not speak out. If some are willing to risk their lives for the sake of the Gospel, it should shame the rest of us into at least speaking up and speaking out and risking people's opinions of us in order that they might hear the Gospel.

The cowardly sophistry of Richard Dawkins

I was reading an article about the most famous atheist in the world, Richard Dawkins, in the Times and realized there are significant differences between Christian missionaries and Dawkins. Dawkins muses that he would like to "convert" Muslims to evolution, odd language to begin with, but his proposed methodology is to have his books translated into Arabic so he can sell them. He "wishes" someone would do it and then complains that his books have been censored so no one has ever been able to read them in the Middle East. If they were able, he believes they would immediately see his point and come round to his way of thinking.

There are several things that separate Dawkins in this proposed missionary endeavor or actually desire, from Christians. The first is that Christians haven't simply waited and wished for someone to translate the Bible so that others can read it, they have actually gone about the work of either translating it themselves or paying for the work to be done. They haven't complained about censorship of the Bible or it being banned in these countries, they have risked their lives smuggling it. They haven't sought to make the Bible a bestseller, they have given them away for nothing.

Another distinction is that Dawkins gives only a second hand account about what may have happened to his Turkish publisher. He "may have been arrested." It seems that Dawkins hasn't actually gone to try and convert anyone in person. Christians have risked their lives on their beliefs because they believe that it is eternally important to others that they take these risks in the belief God loves those other people. Dawkins rests easy, hires a publisher, stays home, gives lectures to fawning audiences, attempts to sell books and bemoans the failure of the enterprise.

The only risk Dawkins takes is that Christians will disapprove of his work and disagree with his writings. The price he pays for that risk is that his books sell well to those who agree with him and even more so because of the controversy. Christopher Hitchens, Dawkins fellow in arms against religion, characterizes Christianity and Islam as equally dangerous, but this article puts the lie to that false equivalency. Dawkins work isn't censored in the west, he is at no physical risk and he openly speaks his opinions. To do so in a Muslim country would require a greater level of courage of conviction. That courage takes a committed Christian, someone who truly believes that this life and the next are important, that other people truly matter, and that what they believe is worth dying for.

Parenting for/from relationship with the Father

I went to a funeral this past week and what I heard was something that always frightens me a little bit, the effect of parenting on children. I heard grown children reflecting on the shortcomings of their father and the lasting impact this had in their lives. I happen to know this father and understand the reality they were talking about but I also know my own shortcomings and imperfections. In my time in ministry I have counseled quite a few people whose lives and their walk with God are deeply affected by their relationship with their earthly fathers. I always wonder how my own failings as a father will keep my children from fully knowing God the Father.

The effects of sin in my life are such that I lash out in anger and withhold affection at times when I am upset with my children. I have a responsibility to raise my kids in a way that teaches right and wrong and so I know that sometimes that means we have difficulty with one another and yet other times my anger is for reasons other than that. One of my kids carelessly backed out of the driveway and in the process hit my car. He was certainly remorseful for what he had done but that wasn't good enough for me this time. I was tired and emotionally worn out and my reaction wasn't Godly to say the least.

It amazes me always to read in the Gospels when Jesus has gone through tough times and still has resources and reserves of compassion with which he continues to minister when the crowds come to Him. I believe that abiding is the secret to that and yet I allow other things to take away my focus on Him and communion is temporarily interrupted and then I am prone to sin against others. Abiding is work but the work has a gigantic pay off. Parenting requires more abiding than I ever realized.