Gospel.com Blog

The Freakonomics blog posted a fascinating email from someone who finds social situations to be much easier when they fake Christianity. Here’s an excerpt from the post We Pretend We Are Christians:

We are agnostics living deep in the heart of Texas and our family fakes Christianity for social reasons. It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.

It seemed silly but it’s all very serious business down here. We don’t go to church or teach or children one belief is “right” over another. We expose them to every kind of belief and trust that they will one day settle in to their very own spirituality. However, for the sake of friends and neighbors, we pretend we are Christians. We try not to lie but rather not to disclose unnecessary information. As the children are getting older, this isn’t so easy for them and an outing is probably eminent.

We are not the only ones. We have found a few other fakers out there.

Read the entire Freakonomics post. The comments after the post are filled with other people sharing their experiences faking religion or political leanings in order to smooth over social situations.

I’ve spent much of my life around Christians and in work environments steeped in Christianity. But recently I moved to a city with a very diverse religious landscape. It’s interesting to see how differently religion is discussed here. When religion is mentioned, it’s broached very carefully and tentatively so as to not offend anyone.

In some ways I miss the more direct openness of other places, but observing these extremely cautious conversations about religion has shown me how quickly Christians can create a situation in which it’s easier for other people to hide their convictions than to boldly state their opposing viewpoint.

Have you ever found yourself faking or omitting your own perspective when a touchy theological or cultural issue comes up in conversation? How do you make sure that people who don’t share your beliefs still feel comfortable around you?

[HT: Experimental Theology.]

The Lausanne Movement is holding their once-per-decade meeting in Cape Town this year. As part of the run-up for the conference, they’ve partnered with Christianity Today to create a series of videos to go along with The Global Conversation initiative. Previous videos have explored global partnerships and the idea of following Jesus while still being a Muslim. This month they’re talking about truth and common ground.

In the following video, they ask people on the streets of Madison, WI a simple question: what in life are you completely sure of?

Common Ground from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

How would you answer that question? What in life are you completely sure of?

[HT: Out of Ur.]

Share your thoughts!

Most Christians have a passing familiarity with the major holidays and notable dates in other religions’ calendars—Jewish holidays like Hanukkah are well-known, as is the Islamic observance of Ramadan. Similarly, most Christians have at least a basic knowledge of those religions’ basic beliefs.

But how much do you know about what Buddhists believe? Do you know how the claims of Buddhism compare and contrast with Christianity’s?

February is a fitting time to learn more about Buddhist beliefs, since it’s when many Buddhists celebrate Parinirvana Day, the day that, they believe, Buddha died and achieved complete Nirvana. A good place to start is an article on the basic beliefs of Buddhism from Campus Life, which also identifies points of similarity and difference between Buddhism and Christianity. A short article at Answers to Tough Questions explains how Buddhist beliefs differ from Christianity.

If you’re interested in further reading, J. Isamu Yamamoto has written a more in-depth article on how Christians should understand and respond to Buddhism in North America (and the article points out that there are different branches within the umbrella of Buddhism, so Christians who’ve studied up on one branch shouldn’t assume they know everything there is to know). Christianity Today has a short discussion of theological issues within Tibetan Buddhism, and an accompanying collection of articles for additional reading. And of course, you can’t beat Wikipedia for sheer volume of information about Buddhist history and beliefs.

So this month, as Buddhists around the world commemorate Buddha’s life and death, take some time to read up on Buddhist beliefs, and consider how you might share your faith with a Buddhist friend or neighbor.

What’s it like to feel your faith slipping away? Christianity Today published an interview with David Bazan, a well-known musician and the former frontman for the indie rock band Pedro the Lion. Bazan is a former evangelical Christian who no longer counts himself as a believer, but he continues to speak (and sing) about God and the doubts that led him away from the Christian flock.

Bazan’s departure from Christianity was a sad and reluctant one, and his former faith continues to haunt him, as this quote illustrates:

Christian spirituality has played a huge part in your music. Will it continue to play a role?

In some ways, I hope not. But I can’t imagine that it won’t. It’s still the central question of my life. I read a lot about theology and church history. I’ll never get a vacation from this. I’m not kidding when I say that this is the central question of my life.

Bazan is certainly not the only person to abandon the Christian faith; but the circumstances of his departure make for an edifying read. Bazan didn’t reject his faith to become an angry, bitter atheist; nor did he simply drift away from Christianity due to apathy or a lack of commitment. Rather, his departure was prompted by, among other things, a sense that the Christianity he practiced was actually interfering with the ethics he wanted to pursue.

The interview doesn’t get too specific about those obstacles, but one obvious question that occurs to me is whether the hurdles that drove Bazan from the faith truly were fundamental elements of the Christian faith, or if they were human “additions” to the faith. It’s also interesting (and a little disturbing) to see the powerful role that fear played (and continues to play) in his spiritual life.

What’s your reaction to the interview? What might you ask or say to Bazan if you had the chance to talk to him about Christianity?

Religion is a central element in countless books, movies, plays, and other artistic media. We watch and read stories that approach religion from every conceivable perspective—pious devotion, doubtful questioning, and angry rejection. We can probably all point to a few novels or films that affected our faith, calling us to re-examine our beliefs or casting light on a difficult spiritual question.

But when’s the last time you played a video game that talked seriously about God?

An article at the video game site Gamespy ponders the absence of religion in video games. That absence does seem odd when you consider both the popularity of games today and the prominence of religious belief in other areas of life. The article’s author tries in vain to get game publishers to comment on this phenomenon; one is left with the strong impression that game publishers consider religion to be too touchy a subject to tackle:

So it was with some surprise that I encountered a wall of fear and paranoia when I called around, asking developers to talk about religion in gaming. What I found is a small handful of people who think about the issues a lot, and wanted desperately to be part of the conversation… and a vast, silent majority who didn’t want to touch the topic with the proverbial 10-foot pole.

“There cannot be a hotter potato than this hot potato,” explains Peter Molyneux, Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios Europe and Lionhead Studios, and one of the brave few not only willing, but eager, to talk about issues of faith. “Religion is one of those things where — if you’re specific about it — you’re going to get yourself into a mountain of trouble,” he suggests. “You have to be very, very careful.”

When religion does appear in games, it’s usually superficial at best: either religious imagery is used as window-dressing for the gameplay, or shallow themes of sin and salvation are used to prop up plots without saying anything meaningful about religious faith itself. (And while a handful of specifically Christian-themed games have been produced by Christian publishers, none to date have met with widespread critical or popular success.)

The reluctance to engage religion is somewhat understandable, from a game publisher’s perspective: why limit your game’s audience by appearing to favor any particular religion when you can just leave religion out of the game entirely and avoid the potential for controversy? That works fine for “pure entertainment” games like Mario Kart or Tetris, but the popularity of Modern Warfare 2 (which sparked discussion about the morality of video game violence) and Bioshock (which explored the clash of real-life political ideologies) suggests that gamers are not averse to games that blend serious issues with fun gameplay.

Why do you think religion is hard to find in video games? Have you played a game that treated religion in general, or Christianity in particular, in a serious and thought-provoking way? What would a game with serious religious content look like, and is that a game you’d like to play?

[Image is a screenshot from the game Bioshock, which gathered attention for exploring real-life political ideas.]

Can compassion be considered a universally accepted ethical and religious standard?

Karen Armstrong recently developed the Charter for Compassion as a way of extrapolating the Golden Rule—a rule that the Charter argues is reflected in every major world religion—into a statement of compassionate thinking and action.

At the moment, about 17000 people have called themselves affirmers of the Charter, and the list includes such celebrity signatories as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Paul Simon and Meg Ryan.

Here’s the first paragraph from the Charter for Compassion. Although, it’s worth reading the entire thing:

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

The Charter has garnered quite a bit of global religious support. Do you think it’s compatible with Christianity? Is this truly a document that we can all agree on? Should Christians sign it?

Are the world’s religions all just different paths to the same destination? Most Christians would answer “no,” as traditional Christianity teaches that Jesus alone can bring us into a relationship with God. But how would you respond to somebody who asked you, personally, if Islam or Buddhism or another religion ultimate led to God?

Here’s how RBC Ministries answers the question:

The major religions that still survive today have lasted a long time, gained many followers, and produced complex and highly developed cultures. Those that have survived into the 20th century generally uphold a moral law similar to the biblical 10 Commandments.  But the world’s major religions do not share a consensus about how to come to terms with our failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

While all major contemporary religions have a fairly close general consensus regarding the moral law—the kind of behavior that deserves to be classified as virtuous or sinful—they fall far short of showing us how to come to terms with our own failure to live up to the moral standards of our faith.

According to the New Testament gospel of Christ, knowledge of the moral law brings awareness of sin and guilt (Romans 3:19,20; 7:7-13; 1 Timothy 1:7-11), but is in itself not a means of salvation. Knowledge of the moral law only brings condemnation, and with condemnation comes guilt and the many destructive ways people try to suppress it (legalism, self-righteousness, scapegoating).Only reliance upon Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection in our behalf provides a solution to the awareness of moral condemnation and agony of guilt that rises out of knowledge of the moral law. Only Christianity offers access to God because it answers the problem of evil and guilt.

Read the rest of RBC Ministries’ answer at their website.

Is that a good answer to the question? Do you think that all religions lead to the same God—and if not, how would you answer somebody who asked you why not?

What do you think?

Is it appropriate for Christians to attend worship services for a different religion?

I think few Christians would object to the idea of learning about or reading up on another religion, but is there something special about a dedicated worship service that makes it spiritually unwise for Christians to attend? Is there a clearly identifiable line between attending such a service, and participating in the worship?

Share your thoughts!

If I were to go to your Facebook page, what would I see listed under “Religious Views”?

Defining your “Religious Views” can be a deceptively complicated experience. Many people aren’t comfortable with labeling themselves so succinctly, because taking on a label often means taking on all the connotations of that label. You might understand what it means to be “Baptist” or “Catholic,” but do all of your acquaintances and friends? Will they in turn label you as a nutcase if you say you’re “Presbyterian?” Should you care if they look at you askance for being “Anglican?”

A recent conversation on the definition of the term ‘evangelical’ comes to mind (see this Jesus Creed post if you’re interested in exploring that). Nowadays, the word “Evangelical” carries some very unchristian baggage along with it in some people’s minds.

A Washingtonpost.com article, Soul-Searching on Facebook, provides some insight into the thought process that goes into the “Religious Views” question:

Creating a Facebook profile for the first time, Eric Heim hadn’t expected something so serious. Hunched over his laptop, he had whipped through the social network Web site’s questionnaire about his interests, favorite movies and relationship status, typing witty replies wherever possible. But when he reached the little blank box asking for his core beliefs, it stopped him short.

“It’s Facebook. The whole point is to keep it light and playful, you know?” said Heim, 27, a college student from Dumfries. “But a question like that kind of makes you think.”
[...]
Of its 250 million users worldwide, Facebook says more than 150 million people choose to write something in the religious views box.

Later in the article Piotr Bobkowski, a doctoral student at UNC, talks about his research:

He has found that a significant portion of privately religious young adults — almost a third in the case of Protestants — avoid identifying themselves by their traditional sects.

Many teens, Bobkowski said, prefer to portray themselves as spiritual but not religious: “That’s why you see all these little one-line creeds popping up.”

What about you? What does your Facebook profile say your religious views are? Do you think there’s good reason for religious people to tiptoe around labels?

It’s a major accomplishment to have been doing anything on the internet for five years, and even more impressive if it involves blogging. And doubly so if it invovles religion as well.

A big congrats goes to GetReligion for crossing that five year mark this week!

GetReligion is a blog devoted to the tireless scrutiny of religion in the mainstream press. They expertly point it out when religion is written about and more importantly when it’s not. They’re spending this week highlighting favorite posts from the past year. You can check out Doulas LeBlanc’s picks today, but remember to check in and congratulate them throughout the week.