The Free Marketplace of Ideas

Since when did Christianity become so cowardly?  I was waiting in line at a Southern Baptist Sunday School Training Event and overheard the youth pastors behind me whining about not being able to get into their student's high schools during lunch to meet with the students when I nearly threw up.  One of the three said something along the lines of "I'm glad I can't go into the school because it means the Muslims and Mormons and others can't go either".  Since when did we become such cowards?  It took everything I could muster to not turn right there and rebuke his stupidity or at least lose what was left of my breakfast. 

Let me paint a picture for a moment:  Say you are accused of a crime, and the trial has come to rest solely upon two points of evidence.  The first is that the criminal who committed the crime has a green jacket.  The second is that you, the accused, do not and have never owned a green jacket nor have you ever worn one, even a borrowed one, which for the sake of this exercise, can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt.  Now suppose your lawyer said, "Let's not introduce that you have never owned or worn a green jacket, that way they won't ask any questions about any other jackets you own."  That lawyer would be fired in a heart-beat.  No sane person would want a lawyer who could not compete.  So why in the world would we think effective Youth Ministry is staying out of schools so the youth won't be exposed to other ideas?

Assuming this was even legal, which it probably isn't (unless the school is doing holding the line absolutely and not letting any outside speakers or leaders to come into the school at all for any club or activity which is unlikely),  and assuming that this would even keep them from being exposed to the other ideas by students or faculty, they are definitely going to be exposed to other faiths in other areas of their life.  Watching TV or spending any time at all on the internet is enough to expose most kids to at least one other religious faith or tradition.

If that is the case, and any logical thought process would show that it is, then our students already know other religions exist and that they probably know someone who follows another religion at their school.  So what are we afraid of?  As I have argued many many times in other circumstances, I have to say it again: IN THE FREE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS.....WE WIN!  End of story.  End of discussion.  Quit your whining and put on your big-boy pants, because the truth of the matter is that these other religions are going anywhere, and if we want to have any hope of being relevant to this generation of young people, we have to get WAY more involved in their lives.  It's time to stop holding teenagers at arms reach Church.  It's time to realize that we lose well over half when they graduate high school, some states/denominations lose as much as 80%, and if we want to try and keep them coming back we have to show them that we are more than their babysitters.

In the final analysis, competition is good for Christianity and Christianity is good for competition.  We have the Truth, and nobody else does.  They may ridicule us, they may hate us even, but in the end, we win.  We always win.  So who cares what they think?  If you never get out there and try, you have let yourself down, you have let your Youth down, you have let your Church down, and ultimately you have let your Savior down.  I don't want to be that guy, and I hope you don't either.

An Open "Letter" to the Ruling Elite....whoever they are.

Chapter 1 of Tertullian’s Apology, a paraphrase by Ryan Burt:

"You Ruling Elite, sitting in your lofty position, if you cannot investigate whether the charges made against Christianity are true (from fear or shame); if we cannot defend ourselves before you, surely you would allow Truth to reach you by “the secret pathway of a noiseless book”. This book, who makes no appeals, is friendless and among enemies, has no desire of earthly praise, but only heavenly, and desires only “not to be condemned unknown”. What’s the harm in that? If you condemn her after hearing her, it is much more damning, but unheard judgment is unjust and many will suppose you did so purposely to not hear that which you must accept upon hearing. This is why hating the name Christian is unjust as well. How could it be more unfair to condemn something of which you know nothing, even if it deserves hatred? Hatred cannot be deserved until something is known to deserve it. Where would justice come from in such hatred? Without knowledge of what is hated, it could not be defended. If people hate something unknown, how can they know they don’t actually like it? Thus they are ignorant in hating us, and hate us wrongly as they are ignorant, each causing the other. The proof: those that used to hate Christianity, upon learning the Truth of it, stop hating it. Haters became disciples. They now hate what they had been, and to believe what they had hated, and there are a lot of them. Too many cry against Christians for converting so many, yet they don’t see there might be some good they are missing because they are so caught up in complaining. They want to be ignorant, though others have found the knowledge to be blissful. They don’t want to investigate because they cannot win. If Christianity is good, they must stop hating, and if it is bad, they only can continue their hatred. They argue it cannot be good just because they have converts, for many have been deceived to evil results. Yet even those misled into evil would not argue it is good since shame and fear follow closely with all that is truly evil. Criminals will admit in their hearts maybe that they are evil but are reluctant to proclaim it publicly. And yet Christianity is nothing like this. Christians are not afraid of attention but rejoice in it openly. What sort of insanity is this that a Christian would rejoice in being condemned as such if it was truly evil? You who know nothing of it cannot judge it so."

I read this first chapter again tonight and just couldn't help but wonder, if cleaned up and modernized a bit, could Tertullian speak to any of us today?  So I had to try it.  I think it works, as far as a paraphrase can anyway.  Smart guys this Tertullian.