OPINION:
Dear Dr. E: I attend an evangelical church, and I have noticed a lot of messaging lately calling for Christians to apologize for all the misdeeds of Christianity over the centuries. Something doesn’t seem right about this to me, but I am having difficulty putting my finger on it. What do you think? — HONESTLY WANTING TO DO WHAT’S RIGHT FROM NEBRASKA
Dear Honestly: Simply stated, the Church needs to get past its inferiority complex, stop apologizing, and remember who we are. We need to grow a spine.
Don’t misunderstand me. Christians should absolutely be humble. We know that we are “chief among all sinners.” But too many of us take humility to the negative extreme and engage in an apology tour rather than confidently fighting the good fight for Christ and His kingdom.
We apologize for the Crusades. We apologize for the Inquisition. We apologize for slavery. We apologize for racism, sexism, and every other “ism.” We apologize for all of it. But in doing so, we seem to have forgotten that Christianity is the soap, not the dirt.
There is no question that some professing “Christians” have done terrible things over the centuries, but the Church – the True Church – has time and again been the correction to all those evils. Why, then, are we not more courageous in proclaiming the good the Body of Christ has done? Why do our pastors not take greater confidence in the veracity of Scripture and the Church’s track record?
After all, it is Christianity that rescued children from sexual slavery, built hospitals, served the dying, protected the young, chartered schools, founded orphanages, and marched for suffrage and women’s rights. Does the average pastor even know this, or is he too busy apologizing for his faith?
I’ll say again: Christianity is the cure, not the disease.
Where is the pastor willing to say that without Christianity, there is no freedom of conscience, and without religious freedom, you have no freedom at all?
Where is the priest willing to stand up and say we are the imago Dei, not the imago dog, and that we are defined by our Lord, not our libido?
Where is the layman willing to tell the world that it is the Church that stopped the practice of infanticide, it is the Church that stopped the slave trade, it is the Church that fought for abolition, and it is the Church that led the march for civil rights?
Where is the church leader willing to say biblical love is a much higher ethic than secular tolerance, and telling someone you will “tolerate” them is more of an insult than a compliment?
Where is the Christian willing to confront our culture’s insipid political correctness as nothing short of pedantic posturing that dumbs down the debate and conflates tolerance with tyranny, liberty with licentiousness, freedom with a free-for-all, and human dignity with human desire?
Where is the G.K. Chesterton of today to point out there is no liberty without law and no freedom without fences? Where is the William Wilberforce to say we are men and not animals? Where is the C.S. Lewis to remind us we can do no measuring without a measuring rod outside of those things being measured? Where is the Deitrich Bonhoeffer, willing to shout in the streets, “Only those who believe obey, but only those who obey believe!”
Instead of apologizing all the time, Christians should be offering an apologia, i.e., a defense, for the truth about the good the Church has done. We should stop cowering and be confident because we have direct access to Jesus. We should boldly step forward with courage because we know what’s right, and we know we are right.
When the best college football teams take the field, do you see any of them apologizing for offending their opponent for believing they are the better team? Of course not. Then why should the Church apologize for being the best standard for dignity, integrity, morality, and justice ever known to man? Not to mention the only way to the Savior of all mankind!
It’s time for obedient Christians to stop apologizing for telling the truth to a troubled culture. After all, it was Jesus who told us the gates of hell will not prevail against us. We need to stop being crowd-pleasers and start acting like Christ.
If you are seeking guidance in today’s changing world, Higher Ground is there for you. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, takes your questions in his weekly ’Ask Dr. E’ column. If you have moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com and he may include it in a future column.
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