Have Christians Become Increasingly Defensive

 


I have a new interest in parsing more carefully what Christians say about themselves and about non Christians. While I may be wrong and nothing has changed, my tenacles are picking up something is different.

It started a day ago when the new Pope made some opening remarks. Most of it followed the script probably written by Vatican staff or his own new staff. He thanks everyone and talked of prayers and unity. But then in a remarks elsewhere that were given little coverage he sounded like he was revealing a concern, what was on his mind. He said Catholic missionaries must stay out there beating the bushes to convert those in other religions because those of other religions are defacto atheists. They need to understand, he said paraphrasing, ours is the real god and those other gods are fake. My recollection is that earlier Popes would not have acknowledged this competition. The message of the new Pope is that lots of people just don't believe us anymore.

Then, there is a conference in Europe of "evangelical leaders" being put on by the dufus Franklin Graham. It is by invitation only but attendance is predicted at 1,000.  I have the impression he is paying for all or most of it. Graham's reason for the conference is that there is not much of Christianity left in Europe and this conference is going to save the continent. Graham thinks this conference, with sermons by famous preachers, will convince the heathens of Europe God really does exist and the view that God is something merely carried around in people's heads is wrong. In a previous time, when Christianity was growing, it was a given everyone believed the Christian God actually existed somewhere other than in the mind. It is now up for grabs.

I'm looking forward to both the new Pope and Graham to see how they will overcome the resistance to belief. Quoting from the Bible will not turn the tide if the Bible is not viewed as an authoritative source. My guess is Graham's conference will be lots of preachers reading from the Bible. Another guess is that not one single European will change his/her mind.   


 

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