Keep the Faith

I’m reading a book called “Confronting Christianity” by Rebecca McLaughlin.  In it, she addresses twelve “tough questions” for Christianity such as, “Doesn’t Christianity cause violence?” and “How can you take the Bible literally?”

In the chapter answering the question of Christianity causing violence, at the end of the chapter, McLaughlin quotes Nicholas Kristof in a July 11, 2011 opinion piece in the New York Times newspaper.  I looked up the entire article, copied it, read it, and would like to share a couple of paragraphs from it.

In the article entitled “Evangelicals Without Blowhards,” Kristof talks of the bad taste that the term “evangelical Christian” has in the mouths and minds of many, and especially in liberal circles.  He pins much of the blame for that on such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and some of the more outlandish things they’ve said on national media.  Of them, and others like them, Kristof says, “Those self-appointed evangelical leaders come across as hypocrites, monetizing Jesus rather than emulating him. Some seem homophobic, and many who claim to be “pro-life” seem little concerned with human life post-uterus. Those are the preachers who won headlines and disdain.

Kristof goes on, “Partly because of such self-righteousness, the entire evangelical movement often has been pilloried among progressives as reactionary, myopic, anti-intellectual, and if anything, immoral.  Yet that causal dismissal is profoundly unfair of the movement as a whole.  It (the reaction of progressives to Evangelicals) reflects a kind of reverse intolerance, sometimes a reverse bigotry, directed at tens of millions of people who have actually become increasingly engaged in issues of global poverty and justice.”

Kristof then says this in defense of evangelicals:  “Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related.  More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith.  I’m not particularly religious myself, but I stand in awe of those I’ve seen risking their lives in this way — and it sickens me to see that faith mocked at New York cocktail parties.”

Fellow believers, people ARE watching us.  They ARE seeing whether we do as we say.  They ARE “in awe” of what God is able to do through us.  We ARE making a difference, even though it may seem like the drudgery of everyday life, living, and yes even service…will never end.

Keep the faith.