Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Dangerous Christianity?

On the September 12, 2006 edition of The View, actress Rosie O'Donnell stated:
"Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America."
I've often thought about this quote. What exactly does she mean by "radical Christianity?" Why would she say that? Simply for shock value? Or does she truly believe it?

I thought about it again this morning. I was doing some research and thumbing through Josh McDowell's classic apologetic Evidence that Demands a Verdict. In reference to the late D. James Kennedy and Jerry Necombe's book What if Jesus had never been born?, McDowell pens the following:

They [Kennedy and Necombe] begin with the assumption that the church, the body of Christ, is Jesus’ primary legacy to the world. Then they examine what has happened in history that displays the influence of the church. Here are a few highlights they site:

  • Hospitals, which essentially began during the middle ages
  • Universities, which also began during the middle ages. In addition, most of the world’s greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes
  • Literacy and education of the masses
  • Representative government, particularly as it has been seen in the American experiment
  • The separation of political powers
  • Civil liberties
  • The abolition of slavery, both in antiquity and in modern times
  • Modern science
  • The discovery of the new world by Columbus
  • Benevolence and charity; the good Samaritan ethic
  • Higher standards of justice
  • The elevation of the common man
  • The high regard for human life
  • The civilizing of many barbarian and primitive cultures
  • The codifying and setting to writing of many of the worlds languages
  • The greater development of art an music. The inspiration for the greatest works of art.
  • The countless changed lives transformed from liabilities into assets to society because of the gospel
  • The eternal salvation of countless souls

Have there been abuses by the church? Unfortunately yes, no one is denying that. But to say radical Christianity is as dangerous as radical Islam, well, I'll let you be the judge of that.

1 comment:

Puritan Lad said...

Good Stuff.

Of course, two points should be brought up to unbelievers who insist on focusing on past abuses of the Christian church.

1.) Such a focus requires selective bookkeeping, as it totally ignores the human rights abuses of atheism in the 20th Century.

2.) Such a focus, which acknowledged as a blight upon the Christian church, is not really relevant to the objective truth of Christianity.