Over the last several months I’ve been traveling a lot, mainly in connection with the release of the book What Good Is God? I’ve also done radio interviews from my home in Colorado and written blogs for the likes of CNN.com and The Huffington Post. Those last two assignments gave me a window into just how much hostility the topic of religion stirs up.
In answering the question, “What good is God?” I respond that I note positive benefits on three levels. 1) On an individual level, faith can help transform the lives of the needy, such as prostitutes, alcoholics, Dalits (Untouchables), and leprosy victims—the stories I tell in my book. 2) The community of faith also responds with comfort and practical help to those in need: both in natural disasters, such as an earthquake in Haiti or a hurricane in New Orleans, and in human ones such as the mass murders at Virginia Tech and Mumbai. 3) Finally, the gospel spreads like yeast in bread, as Jesus predicted, affecting whole societies. Google the websites that rate countries on freedom, prosperity, freedom from corruption, charity, or gender equality, and virtually all have in common a strong Christian heritage. To take a striking example, what changed Sweden from a tribe of pillaging warriors—the fearsome Vikings—into the civil, generous society we see today?
I had no idea that such assertions would whack a hornet’s nest of protesters. Hundreds of people must cruise the Internet daily looking for anyone who says something good about religion. What an idiot I must be! How can I possibly suggest that religion ever does any good! Don’t I know about the Crusades and the Inquisition? Religion does little but delude people, strip them of money, and further violence and ethnic division.
Here are a few samples of those comments:
–God makes waffle batter fluffy. His only power. Little known fact.
–Religion and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee.
–The question for evangelical ministers isn’t whether there is or isn’t a God or whether God matters. The question for their flock simply is; WHERE’S THE MONEY? SHOW ME THE MONEY!
–The guy looks like a wacko, like all evangelicals…
–if there is a god, he sucks. no good god would allow some of the things going on around us to exist. conseqently, if the there is no god we would have no one to blame. assuming there is a god he doesn’t do any of us any good at all.
Some got more personal, such as the writer who posted about me, “He needs his neck broken, I think. Too bad he didn’t die before writing such a pathetic book. What a waste of paper and medical resources.”
Lest you think these sentiments represent a radical minority, consider that before a debate on “Is religion good or bad?” between Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens in Toronto , the organizers commissioned a poll of 18,000 people in 23 countries. Final results: 52 percent of those surveyed concluded that religion does more harm than good. (The nation with the most appreciation for religion, 92 percent, was Saudi Arabia; the nation with the least appreciation for religion, ironically, was Sweden, at 19 percent. Ah, what short memories have those Swedes.)
As I’ve often written, in my fundamentalist past I saw the toxic effects of religion gone bad. And in my career as a journalist I’ve met my share of characters who seem more suitable for Worldwide Wrestling than for spiritual leadership. In fact, the Huffington Post responses caught me off guard because I’m far more accustomed to hearing from Christian flame-throwers who judge me soft or heretical.
Yet I must acknowledge that some of the oddest characters I’ve met, the larger-than-life ones with a surplus of ego and a deficiency of sophistication, are those who have accomplished most in the work of God’s Kingdom: organizing relief work, feeding the hungry, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. That pattern simply replicates what the Bible shows so clearly: God used Jacob with his slippery ethics, David with his moral lapses, Jeremiah with his morosity, Saul of Tarsus with his abusive past, Peter with his bodacious failures.
Thinking back over the Christian personalities I’ve known, as well as those featured in both Old and New Testaments, I’ve come up with the following principle: God uses the talent pool available.
To adapt an analogy I heard recently, when the Pueblo, Colorado, Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—don’t blame Beethoven. On the other hand, the only way many Coloradans will ever hear Beethoven is through that struggling ensemble. Unlike Christopher Hitchens and the defenders of non-religion, I can still hear strains of the Good News wherever I go in the world, which is why I keep writing about it.
Philip,
I can’t begin to tell you what your books have meant to me.
Your books opened the real world of a Christian, the one with struggles with life and about faith.
Yes, you let me know that it was okay to acknowledge the struggle with faith and a God that many times hides Himself from us, and that we don’t have all the answers just because we are believers.
Your books are deep, and people that may not have had the crisis of faith that comes to most Christians if we are honest, or allowed to be honest by the churches we attend, so what you write sometimes cannot be fully appreciated
God bless you for giving us encouragement, understanding and being someone that does understand the struggle.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you for all of your wonderful books, Phillip. I am considering facilitating a book study at my church with your book, “Disappointment With God.” I love your honesty the depth of your commitment to address difficult “faith busters.” If you were conducting a book study, what would you want it to look like? Ideas? Here is my favorite prayer to begin my meditations each day, and a great way to begin a group study, I believe:
Father, you created me and put me on earth for a purpose. Jesus, you died for me and called me to complete your work. Holy Spirit, you help me to carry out the work for which I was created and called. In your presence and name–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–I begin my reflection. May all my thoughts and inspirations have their origin in you and be directed to your glory. author: Mark Link, SJ
I have been very hurt by God..I have screamed and cried and railed against Him.
and then I start all over again…..a God who gently woos us as a lover….
Keep up the great work and let me know if you are ever in St. Louis…
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Mr. Yancey,
I am a native of CO several generations deep. We are friends of Lyle and Mary Dorsett whom you may know with your Wheaton connection. Back in the early 80’s he taught history at Denver University before moving on to Wheaton and the Wade Collection. They are now retired in Birmingham, AL.
My wife, Marian, and I spent the summer of 1974 in inner-city Chicago working with youth from Cabrini Green. One of those who oriented us to the city was a young Jim Wallis. I pastored United Methodist Churches here in CO, in FL and my wife’s native, IL, for 32 years. In retirement, I serve St. Paul’s Congregational Church here in Greeley.
Before my conversion and call to preach I was planning to enter politics. I did graduate work in Political Science at the U of CO Boulder which is where I met Marian. I have kept a hand in politics through writing editorials, speeches for politicians and later blogging for Ken Buck here and Bill Brady in IL under the pen name Eutychus. The site is REDROCKSRIGHT.COM with a background of the beautiful Rockies which you obviously appreciate with your climbing our hightest peaks. I attended Asbury Seminary. When I met our pastor, Dr. David Seamands, and told him I was from CO he said, “Ah, CO. I think God was in a good mood when he created your home state.” No argument here.
And for the past 17 years I have contributed 6-8 times each year for the U Methodist bulletin insert, Our Faith Today. I share all this to say that I admire the depth of your writing, like to write myself and felt this might be of interest as we both reside in this beautiful state.
God Brightest Blessings for you and yours in the New Year. JL Penfold, Greeley
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I’m a 60 something convicted sex offender, an almost lifetime sex addict, and was looking for an e-mail address to contact Phillip, when I read comments from a sister who implies that she defines her true nature to be lesbian.
I do not condemn her in the least, because it is very easy for me to claim that MY true nature lies in my sexual addiction and lust – “after all this is how God made me!” could be the battle cry of every sinner struggling with besetting sin of any kind or nature. I, too, FEEL like my nature should justify my actions of just doing what I feel like doing. But I need salvation exactly because my human nature is flawed and will lead me to do things God says isn’t OK for me to do.
Our true HUMAN nature may be whatever it is, but the central requirement of Christ’s call on us is first: REPENT, and second: be BAPTIZED. He has come to bring us new life . . . . . AND . . . . a NEW NATURE.
Our new nature may be like a space suit – it is good for nothing unless we wear it when we are in a hostile environment.
Repentance is doing things God’s way, whether we like it or not – whether it is incredibly hard or not – or whether it is in our human nature or not. Baptism is symbolic, not magical. Baptism is our public confession of our inner conversion. Symbolically, we go under the water which washes away our old nature and causes us to rise in the cleanness of our new life . . . IN . . . . our NEW nature. My baptism is not an event, rather a process through which I choose to continue participating. There is neither cheap . . . . nor easy . . . . . salvation.
I hate the chains of addiction that are enmeshed in my unregenerate nature, but they exist, and THEY ARE MINE – and therefore mine to deal with, in the power and in the newness of life.
We are responsible for our own woundedness, people.
We are responsible to “work out our salvation with trembling and fear – for it is GOD . . . . . . . who works in you to will and to act according to HIS good purpose” Phil 2: 12 &13
i just wanted to say thank you. God has given you a great talent to communicate some awesome things.
blessings.