Christian Arrogance 2.0

By defaithed - Posted on 23 February 2008

I ran across this "Christian" video here:

This howler stars a number of God-fearing luminaries, such as the president of "Faith 2.0 Ministries". That name raises the question of something I'd never considered before: faith versioning. What's Faith 2.0? Was there something wrong with Faith 1.0? Is 2.0 just the same thing plus doctrinal mash-ups, location-aware prayer texting, and cool gradients on the stained glass?

Whatever. While the video leaves that unanswered, I did gain insights into another "upgrade": Christian Arrogance 2.0.

Old-style Christian Arrogance 1.0 was your classic "fall in line or face the rack" intolerance. Crusades, tortures, slaying heretics, Catholic/Protestant wars, all that.

And the new Christian Arrogance 2.0? You'll love this one.

Aiieee! The Godless are everywhere!

First, a bit about the video. It's a dire wake-up call to Christians, warning of "a new brand of atheism", suddenly all public-like and in everyone's face. It's growing, creeping, spreading its tendrils all throughout society, not just "in universities".

The atheists are attacking "with violence and venom", goes the warning. The foes are "intolerant and militant".

We'll let all that yammering slide; it only sets the tone. The truly unbelievable part begins with a complaint about atheist authors "equating Christianity with radical Islam". On that topic, an unthinking lunk named Ravi Zacharias "challenges" atheist author Sam Harris:

"If you really think there's no difference between Christianity and Islam, I dare you to go and present your talk in Saudi Arabia... He won't take us up on it, because chances are it'll be his farewell speech. It is only the Judeo-Christian worldview that gives the possibility of all of these world views free access to the marketplace. So the very system they're attacking gives them even the voice to attack it".

Hilarious. Ask us this, Ravi: How well would Sam have fared presenting his talk before the Christian Spanish Inquisition? How long could he have presented his talk to a crowd of torch-bearing Christian witch-hunters before they tied him to a stake?

Ravi, have you heard of America? It's a land colonized by Europeans who fled from the old continent's mainstream Christian sect, as it was crushing the voice of their own Christian sect.

Ravi, where has this liberal, tolerant "voice-giving" version of "the Judeo-Christian worldview" been all through history? (How strange that we see Judeo-Christian "tolerance" appearing only now, in the age of ascendant atheism.)

1.0: Intolerant. 2.0: Everyone's intolerant but us.

This is it, folks, Christian Arrogance 2.0: the claim that Christianity is the dispenser of, and very source of, all tolerance and free speech.

Please read Ravi's statement on Islam and Christianity once more:

It is only the Judeo-Christian worldview that gives the possibility of all of these world views free access to the marketplace. So the very system they're attacking gives them even the voice to attack it".

It translates to this:

We Christians will no longer torture and kill you for disbelief. We now deign to allow you a voice; we now tolerate your speech. You should thank Christianity for its generosity.

If arrogance were a dung heap, this is the Everest of steaming piles. Ravi, I have a memo for you and any like-thinking "Christians":

Our "voice" does not come from you or your religion. It is not granted by you or your religion. You and your religion have no authority to grant or to withhold our free speech. You and your religion never did have the right, other than the "right" you held through brute violence.

There. That's taken care of, but don't think we're done having fun with the video.

Cracks in the anvil

The narrator goes on to intone: "Despite the glaring flaws of atheism, it has become the dominant secular religion of today's universities."

Viewers will note that all commentary preceding and following this comment talks only of the "danger" of atheism. At no point does the video actually detail a "flaw". (Nor do the talking heads present any of the "rational, scientific" evidence they claim supports belief in Christianity. Maybe that'll all be in Video Screed 2.0.)

At the end, the pious John Turner of Faith 2.0 Ministries proclaims: "The Christian faith is an anvil that has been wearing out hammers for 2000 years. It's gonna take more than Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins or Dan Brown or whoever the next guy is to unravel the faith."

Apparently Pious John missed everything that preceded his statement in the video: the warning that atheism has become the norm on campuses, the shocking statistic that 75% of college students profess no belief in God, the bombshell news that atheism has expanded from the university into every corner of modern life.

John, you need to take another look at the video you star in. The entire premise of your video is a single, fear-mongering claim, and that claim is this: After 2000 years of critical banging on the Christian anvil, the atheist hammer is winning.

You'd better get Faith 3.0 into beta, quick!