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.
Dear Mr. Yancey,
Since I became a Christian in 2004, I have lost 2 fathers (my own and my husband’s) without having a chance to save them or bringing them to Jesus. I have just finished reading your book about Prayer and have committed to praying for the rest of my family that so dearly need Jesus in their lives – just like I do.
Thank you for being such a blessing to so many, especially to my family – I have truly benefitted from reading your books as it has given me insights on Christianity, that perhaps I alone would not have discovered. Thank you for bringing me closer to my Father in heaven (whom I will not lose).
Thru the many challenges and trials and testing that I have gone through since becoming a Christian, one thing has been clear – the “drawing close to God” bit has been the best decision I have made. Leaning on Him has made me see – the “other side” of things a little clearer and I keep working on this during my quiet time with God.
My husband recently (well not so recently) changed his mind about being a Christian and the day he told me, I felt like a knife had gutted me, I wept and ranted and raved at God, I felt so hurt and I felt so devastated. A part of me died. I could not for sometime even look my husband in the eye. I stopped going to church and found it so hard to pray with my kids. I focussed too much on my own outrage, without even realising that my husband too must have been wrestling and struggling with God. I bet he asked all the same questions – where are you Lord? where are you when I need you? why do you not hear my cry? how can I reconcile suffering? what on earth do you mean by patience?
One day – a vision of the prodigal’s son came to me in my heart. Something happened that day – I wept some more but then I decided to start praying and stop crying. I prayed, alone, I prayed with my kids and boy did we pray. Prayer does indeed work at softening the pray-ee and the pray-er. I can happily report that all is now well at home. The prodigal’s son has returned and indeed something has changed. My life can never be the same again after this experience. I have indeed drawn closer to God, so has my husband and my kids. We have seen God at work – even in such undeserving lives as ours.
Dear Philip! Me and my wife Tanya thank God for you and Janet! My wife bought all books we can buy in russian. I have read all of them. Most of all I want to thank you for clear vision of Who God is. Knowing God – is the core, you shared very well. Thank you!
Dear Phillip,
rather than ignoring those unbelievers who say mean things, I’d be interested if you wrote a book about why religion is regarded with such hostility, the foundations of the belief that it is bad and how a believer can respond. You often write about the problems caused by the church, what about the problem of unbelief? Do you experience it on a regular basis or do you live in a christian cocoon? Perversly, I hope the former. Though I can understand your criticisms of the church, I have found it to be a haven of decency and light compared the unbelieving world. It marvels me that they regard religion with such disgust yet accept the destruction wreaked by alcohol, drugs and organised crime as requisite, even welcome elements in society by comparison. By the way, I love your books and would love to have a meal with you some day. Please don’t die before that happens!
Yours sincerely,
Mark Fitzgerald.
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I believe it was your book on the historical Jesus that planted a seed for my deeper relationship with Jesus that I have now and I just want to say thank you! – Calvin
One of the main concern I have seen is the historical accuracy of your comment on Sweden and Vikings… please read recent hisory books that will show you the Viking society was probably much more civilized than ,ost of the barbarian tribes living on the old roman empire that had been converted to christianism… as pointed out VIkings for example had juries by their peers and allowed women to take part in the social elite. Do you think they had a nice view of christianity knowing what happened to their Saxon neighbours when they refused to convert and got slaughtered by Charlemagne?
Finally as a little detail on history you should note that it was reported that many Franks and other western Europeans were jealous of the Vikings, who took care of their body by bathing and using perfume… I guess you might say the byzxantine empire (with whom Vikings traded as well as the arab world) had a much better influence on their society than the dark age western Eurpoe! History is turning more and more against Rome and showing barbarians were not the one we imagined (look at the Vandals kingdom)