In a recent post on the website “The Bilerico Project: Daily Experiments in LGBTQ,” Bill Browning describes me as “a blogger for the fundamentalist hate group Indiana Family Institute, explaining why Christians need to start attacking progressives.” This post is made under the heading “Because Christianity is warlike,” and quotes from my blog for Veritas Rex titled “Putting Christianity on Offense.”
Here is the quote that Browning sites:
"Christianity is now on offense... We're taking the battle to a new level, and the result will be either that Christians regain the authority to speak to all areas of life or that Christians lose the ability to speak at all. The stakes are high.”
From that, I draw the ire of The Bilerico Project?
If you read my entire blog you’ll see that nowhere do I suggest that Christians attack progressives. You certainly do not see that in the quote Mr. Browning sited.
My sole contention is that Christianity is under a new kind of attack by the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. These individuals and their followers are not content to co-exist with Christianity. They aim to destroy it.
These individuals assert that religion in general and Christianity in specific are a detriment to civilization itself. They suggest religion is a form of child abuse.
I’m not making this stuff up.
Richard Dawkins wrote that “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate.”
Sam Harris believes religion is akin to slavery. He writes: “I would be the first to admit that they prospects for eradicating religion in our time do not seem good. Still the same could have been said about the efforts to abolish slavery at the end of the eighteenth century.”
These are quite inflammatory (and warlike) statements. This is not a philosophy or worldview of “live and let live” as suggested by an individual identified as “Sportin’ Life” in a comment on The Bilerico Project’s website.
In light of this new, vehement, highly aggressive (and warlike) atheism, we’ve opted to put Christianity on offense. This does not mean we are attacking progressives or that Christianity is warlike, as Browning suggests. What it does mean is that we are seeking to answer the arguments of the New Atheism and that we are willing to do it on their terms and on their turf.
Warlike? Hardly. We’re simply, as one of the original disciples of Jesus wrote, attempting to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give a reason for why we believe.
As I said in my earlier post, the result of this current spiritual and intellectual battle will either be that Christians regain the ability to speak to all areas of life or Christians will lose the ability to speak at all.
I’m happy that Mr. Browning read my blog but I’m disappointed his post tends to promote a spirit of hate rather than a spirit of genuine discussion. From his post I got the feeling he thinks I closely resemble Darth Vader.
If Mr. Browning is seriously interested in discussion of these issues and not mere posturing, I’d encourage him to pick up a copy of Dinesh D’Sozua’s latest book What’s So Great About Christianity.
D’Souza writes in the preface:
“I think that if atheists are genuine rationalists they should welcome this book. It is an effort to meet the atheist argument on its own terms. Nowhere in this book do I take Christianity for granted. My modus operandi is one of skepticism.”
There’s a difference between being warlike and being on offense. To learn more about strategies to put Christianity on offense, go to www.worldchangers.us.com. When you’re there, email us your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.
