Friday, November 23, 2012
Hurray For Christianity
I
still distinctly remember one particularly arrogant lecture that I was
subjected to over thirty years ago. I
was pursuing a degree at Eastern Montana University and my History professor,
who had just recently graduated from an Ivy League school, was talking about
colonial America. She had a habit of
reading her lectures word-for-word, so usually her classes seemed
interminable. What caught my attention
on that particular day was a sudden burst of intolerant and hateful accusations
which she made against the Christians who settled this continent. I wasn’t used to that kind of bigotry. I was later surprised to discover that many
places of higher education tend to be adversarial toward Christianity. This is ironic since many of those very
schools were established by Christian organizations.
Christians
are not perfect, but it is a shame that much of what they have accomplished has
been repeatedly ignored or misrepresented.
A Nazi propagandist supposedly said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." Whether or not a Nazi really
said that, I am convinced that the statement is true. Every once in a while it
is refreshing to hear someone speak more fairly on the matter. Allow me to share a few such quotes:
“I am not a Catholic and I am aware
that the Catholic church has had it’s struggles, but there are still many
things that we can all commend them for.
One historian puts it this way: ‘That Western civilization stands
indebted to the Church for the university system, charitable work,
international law, the sciences, important legal principles, and much else
besides has not exactly been impressed upon them with terrific zeal. Western civilization owes far more to the
Catholic Church than most people-Catholics included-often realize. The Church, in fact, built Western
civilization.’” (Thomas Woods)
“Early Christians campaigned against
the totalitarian powers of Roman emperors and European kings. Later Christians
would act as emissaries for peace, fighting against the horrors of slavery and
for the rights of the “Indians” found in the New World. Women’s suffrage found a home in Christian
churches. Many of the civil rights movements in our modern time were supported
by Christian organizations, and, for generations, Christians have worked to
alleviate hunger and disease.” (Chris
& Ted Stewart)
While
Christians should be expected to apologize for their errors, their mistakes and
vices should not overshadow the many wonderful things their faith has birthed
in spite of human weaknesses. In America, all but one of the Ivy League schools
and hundreds of major hospitals were founded by Christian organizations. Scores of homes for the elderly, shelters for
the homeless, soup kitchens, rehab centers, crisis pregnancy centers are owned
and operated by Christian organizations.
Most churches also serve their communities in many ways.
Let’s
be honest. Christians are not perfect,
but they have certainly been a great blessing to a whole lot of people. There’s
no need to revise history. There is a
great need to celebrate the good things that are being done. Hurray for Christianity!
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