Anti-Christian Bigotry?
“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
On August 25, 2012, the Orlando Sentinel published an article beginning on the front page of the newspaper that carried with it the title, “At UCF and Nationwide, Secularism Finds Its Voice.” The focus of attention concerns a psychology professor at the University of Central Florida. He posted an e-mail that is described as having gone viral twice. Apparently, Professor Charles Negy “chastised the devout Christian student who told the rest of the class to ignore the professor questioning their religious beliefs” (A1).
If this description is accurate, he has a point, but what is not stated is how much discussion occurred before such words were spoken. If, for example, the professor had been badgering Christian students throughout the semester and had ignored opportunities to reason on the subject, one can understand how such a thought might have been uttered out of frustration.
On the other hand, if the student was one of those who did not want to answer any of the challenges that people sometimes make to Christianity, then the professor would have a point. We are not furnished enough information to make a judgment at the outset of the article, but some interesting things surface as it continues. Following is what Negy wrote as part of his e-mail:
Students in my class who openly proclaimed that Christianity is the most valid religion, as some of you did last class, portrayed precisely what religious bigotry is. Bigots—racial bigot [sic] or religious bigots—never question their prejudices and bigotry. They are convinced their beliefs are correct (A1).
Well, it is easy to see how his students might have become frustrated with the professor over a period of time. Does he sound like a person capable of being reasoned with?
Like most false teachers in religion (and secular humanism is a religion), Negy uses his own definitions to stack the deck in his favor. How about letting an impartial source decide what a bigot is? According to Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged, a bigot is:
1. a hypocrite, esp. a superstitious one. Obs.
2. One obstinately and irrationally, often intolerantly, devoted to his own church, party, belief, or opinion.
The key word in the above definition is the word irrationally. Christians are not the irrational ones. Our heritage finds God saying, “Come, now, and let us reason together.” Although His people were sometimes irrational in times past when they disobeyed Him, we are today totally rational in our submission to Him. Atheism and secular humanism, on the other hand, can find no origin for rational thought and logic in matter or in a random universe.
The last statement in Negy’s quoted paragraph is an assumption. How does he know that Christians have never questioned the correctness of their beliefs? Has he ever questioned his own beliefs? We might imagine him scoffing in reply: “Well, of course, I have. I’m an objective educator. I question everything.” Oh, so then, professor, your point is that you question everything and are therefore not a bigot, but everyone who disagrees with you never questions anything and therefore is a bigot. No, we are not trying to put words in the man’s mouth, but what other conclusion is there to draw? He called the students in his class bigots because they never question themselves, did he not? Did they say that to him? Did his students tell him, “We never question our beliefs”? Prejudice is holding on to something despite what the facts say; it is not prejudice to hold on to what one knows to be the truth. That is called being faithful and steadfast.
Christianity: the Only Valid Religion
Christianity is not the most valid religion; it is the only valid religion. This statement does not arise from bigotry, prejudice, or braggadocio. It is simply the truth. Not only is it true, but there is a precedent for saying so. Under the Law of Moses, there was only one religion authorized by God. To hold his current position, Professor Negy must challenge the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel.
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:1-3).
“You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” (Ex. 20:4-5a).
The Egyptians worshiped a host of gods and had made images of them. God commanded Israel not to worship or serve such images nor to have any other gods. The reason for God’s prohibition is that there is, and always has been, only one true and living God. The idols were gods invented by human beings; they had no real power, although people chose to worship them. God proved that He had more power than the Egyptian pantheon when He delivered the Israelites from their hand by bringing upon them ten plagues, which showed He had power over the water, the sun, and life itself.
When the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant from the Israelite nation that was living in rebellion against God, the Lord showed them that He had power over them. Two mornings in a row, the priests of Dagon found that their idol was bowing before the ark of the covenant. He also brought a plague upon the Philistines, and they voluntarily returned the ark to Israel. A true God does not need to wait to have a holy object be rescued (1 Sam. 5-6).
Elijah proposed and won a contest with the false prophets of Baal. Although the priests of Baal may have been sincere as they called on the name of their deity from morning until night and cut themselves until their blood gushed out, the fact is that Baal was nothing more than a human invention. He was not an actual living being with any power. Only Almighty God is, and He answered Elijah’s prayer, consuming his sacrifice with fire, which had been thoroughly doused with water (1 Kings 18).
The fact is that there is only one true and living God, concerning which the prophet Jeremiah reminded the people prior to the captivity (Jer. 10:10). The Lord will not fight for His people when they are immoral and practicing idolatry, which led to their being conquered.
The New Testament continues in this same vein. There is still only one true and living God. The apostle Paul specifically commends the newly converted at Thessalonica because they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9). Today, only one way of coming to God is available—and that is through Jesus, Who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
The apostles preached this truth, also. The Law of Moses, which God had authorized, He nailed to the cross of Christ (Col. 2:14). It was no longer in effect because He replaced it with the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Thus, when the apostles were arrested by the Jewish leaders and asked by whose authority they were teaching and had healed a man who had been lame from birth, they did not hesitate to give an answer, part of which was: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Undoubtedly, some of the Sadducees thought this remark was bigoted and prejudiced; the apostles did not speak out of bias, however, but because they knew it was the truth. They had been with Jesus, heard Him teach, observed His miracles (which constitutes evidence), and saw Him resurrected from the dead!
When Paul traveled to Athens, he engaged in a conversation with certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, who referred to him as “a babbler” (Acts 17:16-18). (They probably waited until after he spoke to call him bigoted.) Paul attempted to reason in the marketplace with the philosophers, but some preferred calling him names (some things never change). Paul affirmed the truth before this audience when he told them of the one “Lord of heaven and earth.” He preached that “the Divine Nature” cannot be represented by “gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising” (Acts 17:29). The Bible consistently teaches that there is one God and that He is Spirit (John 4:23-24) and not like man or animals in form.
It may be the case that some today call themselves Christians who are just culturally so—who have never examined any proof but are just content to call themselves Christian. But many have given the situation much more thought than just a cursory consideration. To begin with, Jesus demands first place, and Christianity is a commitment—one that could lead to dying for the faith, as many in the first century did. Becoming a Christian is not something one does frivolously. Jesus taught that the cost should be counted (Luke 14: 26-35).
The charge that Christians are bigots is false! We are the ones who teach that our beliefs ought to be examined and re-examined. We are the ones who are willing to analyze everything we believe and change if we find that we are in error. Some who call themselves Christians refuse to do this, but they are not following Biblical principles (1 Thess. 5:21-22).
The Interview
The article’s purpose seems to be to show that there are more people who are willing to say they are unbelievers than there once were. The writer of this piece, who usually champions anything against the Bible or its teachings, interviewed Negy concerning this new trend. Some of his comments included:
“I think the tension you are seeing now is the more non-believers there are, the less willing we are to accept that arrogant assumption” that Christianity is the only true religion. “We are not going away any time soon, and the more of us we are, the more confident we feel” (A12).
Yeah—kind of like the male homosexuals in Sodom. Since they were a majority, they were very confident (Gen. 19).
Most of the tension is being caused by atheists who continue to challenge the Bible, Christianity, faith, and the principles upon which this nation is founded. Do they think that people are just supposed to be quiet and not reply? Some professors (not all, by any means) continually denigrate Christianity at every opportunity, and then, when a student opposes them, they call them bigoted and prejudiced. Negy accuses Christians of making arrogant assumptions. Imagine that—a college professor accusing students of being arrogant! Hah! It doesn’t get much funnier. But, as has already been shown, Christianity is not based on assumptions but on reasoning correctly with the evidence we have.
The Class
Negy says that he grew up as a Southern Baptist who never questioned his beliefs until he was studying in Spain, which has a large Muslim population. He began to wonder if Jesus was the true prophet or if it was Muhammad, which led him to ask if there was proof for either. He realized he had just been a cultural Christian because everyone around him believed the same thing. Well, good, he finally realized that he should examine the evidence; unfortunately, he did not do a very good job of doing so.
The Qur’an does not at all compare with the Bible. It is a collection of sayings Muhammad composed orally and which were written down later by his men. The Bible was written over a period of 1,600 years by 40 different men, many of whom never met each other. It contains prophecies recorded from 400 to 1500 years in advance of their fulfillment. The Qur’an has one prophecy, given and fulfilled by Muhammad. The Bible records many miracles, which serve to confirm that the speaker was from God (John 20:30-31). The Qur’an records none. Anyone who cannot see a vast difference between these two books is not trying very hard. Also, Jesus did not engage in physical battles and kill His fellow human beings; neither did He marry a girl who was only nine years of age.
Negy says that he only wants people to think critically. Again, he assumes that his students have not been taught to do so. Just because he had never done so does not mean that others have the same background. Thinking critically should be the goal of every individual; this philosophy is taught in the Scriptures, and it is for that reason that brother Warren debated Antony G.N. Flew in 1976 and Wallace I. Matson in 1978. The Christian has nothing to fear from investigation.
The claim is that America seems to be following, at long last, in the footsteps of Europe in departing from God. If so, it is appropriate to ask this question: “What are the results of a predominantly Christian society versus a non-Christian one?” Now, by the word Christian, we mean those who follow the precepts of the New Testament, not those who only say they do. In other words, the Inquisition conducted by the Roman Catholic Church was not in accordance with what Jesus or His apostles taught. Jesus told Peter to put away his sword, adding that all who live by the sword die by the sword (Matt. 26:52). History confirms that Christians allowed themselves to be put to death rather than fight the Romans.
In America, who are the Christians who randomly shoot innocent victims or commit mass murder like the two teens at Columbine High School? Do people shout “Jesus is Lord” or “Allahu akbar” just before they complete a suicide mission? Christianity, when properly taught and practiced, has a good effect on society. It promotes morality and peace with all men—even agnostics and atheists. Christianity is not a threat to anyone’s physical well-being. In a free society, Christians will debate and try to persuade others—but with words, not with force.
The problem with the agnostic is that he cannot even be certain that he is correct in his worldview. Therefore, he definitely has a difficult time proposing any system of morality. Is prostitution right or wrong? Why? What about the use of drugs? Is abortion acceptable? What about homosexuality? Should the death penalty be used or not? On what basis can any of these moral issues be decided? What is the standard of authority? It generally becomes a matter of every person doing what is right in his own eyes, and the last five chapters of the Book of Judges shows the folly of that approach.
Where does that old saying, “Love your neighbor,” originate? How about the Golden Rule? Where do we read that we ought not to lie to or steal from one another? What Book teaches kindness, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness? What informs us that we ourselves profit when we are generous? Where have we been taught that it is wrong to steal another man’s wife? It is interesting that following what the Bible teaches results in true happiness for each individual and the betterment for society. How has atheism helped? What has agnosticism done in a positive way? Is Europe the better for having rejected Christianity? Hmm. Perhaps they would be interested in having some more atheistic professors over there. America could probably spare a few hundred, and they could report back to us in, say, 50 years.