I think Donald McLaughlin is privy to the "BreakPoint" schedule, because in his comments to my post yesterday notifying readers of Chuck's latest commentary (dear readers, to clarify, I'm the neutral messenger on such notifications -- direct criticisms toward the speaker of those commentaries), he talks about Sam Harris, author of Letter to a Christian Nation.

Well, today Chuck talks about Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins and their latest books.

It doesn’t take a meteorologist to read the forecast. A quick glance at the New York Times’s bestseller list will do. High on the list is Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. One reader describes the book as “a wonderful source of ammunition for those who, like me, hold to no religious doctrine.” Another reader jubilantly gushes, reading the book “was like sitting ring side, cheering the champion, yelling ‘Yes!’ at every jab.” The barrel of the gun and the sting of the fist, however, are aimed directly at Christians.

Further down the list of pugilistic bestsellers is Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, weighing in at 416 pages of hot air. Even Publishers Weekly rightly cautions readers, “For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe.”

And then Chuck talks about how Christians should respond:

The truth of the matter is that the ones heaping derision on Christians are probably the ones who most need our prayers. So, in the end, maybe the best way to prepare for this cold front is by fanning the coal of our own devotion to Christ through good works. If our lives are aflame with care for the least, the last, and the lost, the kind of thing we do here at Prison Fellowship, perhaps even the coldest hearts will thaw.

And don’t let this anti-Christian barrage intimidate you. Just keep making the case for a biblical worldview ever more winsomely.

Read the whole commentary and share your thoughts here. And note, yet again, the key word: winsomely.

Comments

[Donald McLaughlin]

No, I'm not privvy to anything. Its just that Dawkins and Harris (not to mention Dennett and Pinker) provide such rich examples of the sorts of things you and Chuck Colson were talking about. Besides, I was fresh off reading both those guys (I know -- kinda like beating yourself with a hammer!), so it was near the top of my head!!

But what Chuck mentions today is exactly right, I think. "So, in the end, maybe the best way to prepare for this cold front is by fanning the coal of our own devotion to Christ through good works. If our lives are aflame with care for the least, the last, and the lost, the kind of thing we do here at Prison Fellowship, perhaps even the coldest hearts will thaw."

I'm convinced that atheists like Dawkins and Harris (and any of their ilk) do not reject belief in God on the basis of evidence which is either there or not there. They reject belief in God because they simply do not WANT there to be an actual God who really exists and to whom they might owe some allegiance. The evidence ploy simply provides them with intellectual comfort...bare though it be.
Deep down, I have to believe they really do know the truth. The Imago Dei is within them, whether they like it or not!

[LAbriAlumn]

Being prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us and doing good are indeed very necessary and proper.

Yet, should we not also wake up and smell the coffee that this is no longer a free country such as many of us were born into? Should we not begin to prepare ourselves and our fellow believers to endure persecution in future days? Not for the wicked killing of unbelievers as in the horrendous Left Behind computer game, but to memorize Scripture, turn away from faith and prosperity teachings and other forms of glory theology that deceive believers into thinking that they will never suffer persecution or martyrdom, and prepare ourselves psychologically and intellectually for what may well be on its way?