If you have been breathlessly following this daily blog you know that we have been addressing Pat Robertson and the whole Intelligent Design debate. The controversy has inflamed the bloggers (that sounds painful) to a category 4 or maybe 5 fury. A cursory run through some websites reveals two primary points. First, this is a master plan of Christianity to get thinly veiled “Creationism” into the public schools and turn the brains of unsuspecting children into mush. I am disappointed that I was not invited to this meeting. The second point is that Christians are stupid. If you type the phrase “stupid Christians” into Google you get 9,930 returns. That is a boatload of stupid Christians.
I have developed a desire to communicate and help restore people who have been wounded by the church and by those in the church. So I will often visit websites of those who have issues with Christians. Here are some titles from blogs and websites (my comments in italics).
- Stupid Christians index – Didn’t make the list…note to self…try harder
- All Christians are idiots – Maybe today Diogenes the Cynic would be carrying his lantern looking for one smart Christian instead of an honest man.
- Amazingly Stupid Christians – Premiering next week on Fox!
- I am sick and tired of stupid Christians – Me too.
- Stupid Christians are ruining the world – Don’t look now but they are getting lots of help.
- 101 Reasons to Hate Those Stupid Christians – My favorite. This guy is calling Christians stupid and he has 12 reasons on his site.
I do have one observation from visiting these websites. Get spell check! I began to think the cows from the Chick-fil-a billboards were typing these blogs and posts. Not a lot of communication is going on at most of these sites. Here is a typical “debate”.
“You are a stupid Christian!”
“Well I may be stupid but at least I am not going to hell.”
That is some helpful interchange going on there!
But not much has really changed. The great preacher Charles M. Spurgeon wrote in the 19th century that “if you follow Christ, all the hounds of the world will yelp at your heels. Count on this, if you live for Jesus Christ, the world will not speak well of you.”
I wish that was not true. I wish I could discuss my faith with civility and grace with everyone. I wish that everyone would view my attempts and desire to communicate my faith as genuine and caring. I wish that those of opposite beliefs would view me like the hitter that got a tip about what pitch was coming in the movie Bull Durham.
“He’s pitching a two-hit shutout and he’s shaking me off! Do you believe that? Charlie, here comes the deuce — and when you speak of me, speak well.” Crash Davis, “Bull Durham”
I wish that when you speak of me you would speak well. But if you don’t it won’t change my hope of communicating the message of Christ to you. This other kind of communication has, unfortunately, been going on for a while.
So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. I John 3 The Message
I hope you don’t hate me. I hope you don’t think I’m stupid. I certainly don’t think you are stupid (at least until I get to know you). I do think some of you have a little anger issue but that is another topic. Perhaps if I can implement the words of James I can convince a few.
Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3 – The Message
Call me stupid but that seems like a good goal.
Jasmine Jacobson
I am a high school student looking for " 101 reasons evelution is stupid" on google. Your add was like, second from the top, so i thought i might just put my two sence in. I was raised in a chrisian home all my life. And i always belived it. Then my brother died (he practily raised me) from being shot 10x in his uper body. I starterd asking Q’s form then on about, " why did god let that happen? Why did he take my brother?" And stuff like that. It didn’t take me long to find out that God is just what i needed. really! He may have taken my brother but i know it was his time to go. My brother would not call you stupid nor will i, but your actions are stupid. I hope they do not define who you really are.
Mark Marsden
Rather than try and get ID taught as science a better goal might be to get evolution to be taught as a philosophy. Biology is a science; evolution isn’t. Unless of course you want to discuss ID and evolution as theoretical sciences and discuss different levels of scientific fact (direct observation, indirect observation, deduction, conjecture).
Chris Childs
And with all us stupid Christians out there can you blame the folks who have given up on God. I must show how God’s love is my love to others and that does not come by judging and condemning others.
Mark Marsden
It’s partly a cultural/group blind spot thing. American Christianity is often portrayed as right-wing Republican to a McCarthyist extent to the exclusion of all opposition. English Christianity is more split between the moral right and the social left but is a bit more wishy-washy.
From outside we see the claims that Bush is a Christian with moral policies I’d broadly agree with (though I’d like to see evidence) and yet the social policies are seen to be deficient in New Orleans and the Kyoto Agreement. So I’m not a fan of "Christian America" whilst "Christian England" has by and large disappeared. Europe (big generalisation) is just atheist.
Mark Marsden
Quoting the Bible is great. It acts like a rod in the ground.