Thinking to Believe

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare ruled that it legal to abort a baby based solely on its gender.  Let’s see if pro-abortion feminists will stand up in opposition to this practice or not.  Probably not.  And why should they?  After all, if abortion is about choice, it should not matter why one makes the choice they do.  All that matters is that the choice is theirs, and they are free to make it, even if that choice is to kill a baby girl, simply because it is a girl.

Rob Bell, pastor of the influential Mars Hill Church in Michigan, wrote a book entitled Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  In one section of the book Bell writes:

It is important to remember that we rarely find these first christians trying to prove that the resurrection actually occurred.  To try to prove there was an empty tomb wouldn’t have gotten very far with the average citizen of the roman empire; they had heard it all before. This is why so many passages about the early church deal with possessions and meals and generosity. They understood that people are rarely persuaded by arguments, but more often by experiences. Living, breathing, flesh-and-blood experiences of the resurrection community. They saw it as their responsibility to put Jesus’ message on display. To the outside world, it was less about proving and more about inviting people to experience this community of Jesus followers for themselves.

Mark Oestreicher (who quoted the above passage on his personal blog), president of Youth Specialties, added his own two cents in support of Bell’s comments:

People today could care less about the “proof” of our arguments, the “logic” of our evidence that demands a verdict, or our “cases” for faith, christ, easter, christmas or whatever else. The only evidence demanding a verdict people care about these days is how i live my life. The only case for christ people give a rip about is the case made by commitment to love and justice, or lack thereof.”

It is unfortunate that such high-profile, youth-focused Christian leaders would make such remarks.  While it is true that people are interested in seeing our Christianity lived out in real life—and not just hearing our arguments for Christianity—that does not mean they are unconcerned about our arguments.  Every human being is concerned with the truth because we are made in the image of the one who is Truth.  Knowledge of the truth requires epistemic justification of some sort, and to some degree, and hence arguments are beneficial.

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