Re: Why Christians Are Viewed Poorly

On 5/20/06, Pim van Meurs <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Rich Blinne wrote:
>
> > Why are Christians and specifically conservative Christians viewed
> > poorly by society in general and secular scientists in particular?
> > Let's look at a stereotype for a moment, namely conservative
> > Christians are not interested in the truth. We know that this is
> > untrue but how do we undo this misperception?
>
> I would say that it is not just secular scientists but also many
> christian scientists who may see conservative Christians in a
> particularly poor light, mostly because of the disastrous impact of
> their policies on public education and their adherence to often poor
> scientific arguments (YEC, ID).
> The stereotype may not be true in general but there seem to be many
> instances in which it seems hard to argue that some Christian
> conservatives are interested in the truth. Quick to reject evolutionary
> science, environmental science (ozone hole, global warming), etc.
> In addition, it seems that in name of Christianity many policies exist
> which seem to be quite unchristian in nature. The politics of the last
> few years shows ample examples of this.

Quite true. And taking my hypothetical a little further and now taking
the mantle of conservative Christian -- which is easy since I am one
-- I would respond to the example by my hypothetical scientist by
agreeing with him that there does appear to be global warming for
example. That is what roughly half of evangelicals have done. They are
called evangelical moderates but that is somewhat of a misnomer. With
respect to theology they are for the most part just as conservative as
the traditional evangelicals. What makes them different is not
necessarily accepting the party line of the so-called Religious Right
(or the Religious Left for that matter). Examples of evangelical
moderates are Rick Warren and the head of the National Association of
Evangelicals. The political philosophy varies amongst us but what is
more common is a distrust of the political agendas of either the left
or right -- thus the moderate tag. Furthermore, we understand that
while there is some overlap between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom
of Man -- we are not to have compartmentalized lives -- there is also
a distinction. Political movements always want religion to legitimize
their activities and we are not to give away that precious gift of
legitimacy too cheaply.

>
> So let me ask a question. What have the conservative Christians done to
> promote Christ's message?

More than you think. I'll give just one small example. http://www.nfny.org

 If Christ were to visit our earth today, would
> he be happy with what he would see?

No, he predicted otherwise. "When the Son of Man returns will he find
faith on the Earth?"

Would he be happy with the
> conservative Christians?

He will be happy with all Christians despite all our shortcomings. He
will present us to the Father as a spotless bride.

 Personally I believe he would be quite shocked
> to see what happened to His message of Love.

He's not shockable. He has already drank the cup of our sin to the
dregs and died for us anyway.
Received on Sat May 20 22:51:04 2006