So, Nicholas D. Kristof has an editorial in the New York Times. I’ve also reprinted here with my thoughts.
Believe It, or Not
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Today marks the Roman Catholics’ Feast of the Assumption, honoring the moment that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So here’s a fact appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).
That’s great news. Both are articles of faith but the Virgin Birth has more evidence.
So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea.
Again, all good so far…..
Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries overwhelmingly believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S. view. (For details on the polls cited in this column, go to www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds.)
America is a great nation and France needs to be paved. Could we have a parallel here? Where the heck do people think morality comes from? Maybe some of the people in France need to read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Without a standard of morality then you’ve got relativism.
The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points in the latest poll.
OK, this is where if you are a person who takes their faith seriously will be offended. What Kristoff is really saying is that if you believe in miracles then you are an idiot.
My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and active Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution and regarded the Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of mainline Christians are vanishing, replaced by evangelicals. Since 1960, the number of Pentecostalists has increased fourfold, while the number of Episcopalians has dropped almost in half.
Too many people treat church as just a little place to go and be social. Any church that has as an elder who does not believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ is a church that is not worthy of Christ. I’d bet money that grandfather also didn’t believe in the resurrection of Christ or that Jesus is God. Again, to take Christianity seriously you can’t just throw out the Virgin Birth or the resurrection.
The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well. One of the most poisonous divides is the one between intellectual and religious America.
Ugh!!!! I rather enjoy my intellectual Christian friends. Our faith is based on facts not just because we want to believe. The Bible itself is extremely reliable historically so why would it lie about Jesus?
Some liberals wear T-shirts declaring, “So Many Right-Wing Christians . . . So Few Lions.” On the other side, there are attitudes like those on a Web site, dutyisours.com/gwbush.htm, explaining the 2000 election this way:
“God defeated armies of Philistines and others with confusion. Dimpled and hanging chads may also be because of God’s intervention on those who were voting incorrectly. Why is GW Bush our president? It was God’s choice.”
So equating people that want Christians dead verses believing George W. Bush was God’s choice???? You’ve got to be kidding. Heck, I believe it was God’s choice that Bill Clinton was President.
The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America’s emphasis on faith because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the Virgin Birth, and for Mary’s assumption into Heaven (which was proclaimed as Catholic dogma only in 1950), as so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of faith. As the Catholic theologian Hans K
6 responses so far ↓
1 David Scott // Aug 18, 2003 at 10:51 pm
Yes, this article is pretty disgusting, but sort of typical. “Intellectual” and “Mainstream” Christians are the ones who don’t really believe in the tenets of their own faith. Whatever.
As far as the “Virgin Birth is a Copy” stuff, here are a couple good links…
Christian-thinktank.com
tektonics.org
God Bless..
2 Bob Wagner // Aug 19, 2003 at 6:42 am
Your feedback of the Kristof article is right on the mark. You have done what many so often have wanted to do, show the fallacies in some writer’s article or talking head’s comment in black and white, yellow in your case. As for Kristof’s father who was a Presbyterian Elder… to believe as he did requires him to have misrepresented his beliefs at the time of his ordination as an elder.
3 Joe Sackett // Aug 20, 2003 at 10:29 am
Don’t forget, Kristoff is competing with Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman and Jayson Blair for the NYTimes.
Another great CS Lewis passage about the Moral Argument (Mere Christianity is the best starting point) is Abolition of Man. Check out “Men Without Chests” The consequences of the end of moral standards is the central theme of the book.
There is no such thing as the “industrialized world”, most cultures of the world are industrialized. He is only referring to the European socialist world. You have to give up on morality and human dignity to be a socialist. Darwin; then Nietzsche; then Bismarck and Hitler; as well as Marx; then Lenin and Stalin. (Francis Schaeffer, God Who is There, Death in the City)
A great book refuting the Jesus Seminar drivel is Jesus Under Siege by Dr. Gregory Boyd, a prof at Bethel College. (Hugh should look him up when he goes to Minne so Cold… I think Boyd might be a liberal, though)
You have an Interesting page, “I’ll be back!” (Your comments about Arnold are interesting, also)
Switchfoot has great lyrics! Check out the Supertones lyrics, too. The kids are going to lead our country into a revival. Maybe you should recommend to Hugh Hewitt to use Christian rock for bumper music. Generalissimo is cool, but his taste in music is more like the old game Trivial Pursuit than music to make us sit up and get ready. “Who can be against Me?” by the Supertones would be great bumper music.
Looking forward to more fun thinking,
God bless,
Joe Sackett
4 trogers // Aug 20, 2003 at 7:03 pm
I’ve sent Hugh a couple emails about Switchfoot. I need to reread “Abolition” because I didn’t get it. With Lewis it takes an effort for me to “get it”. I am reading “God In The Dock” right now.
5 AST // Aug 22, 2003 at 5:56 pm
I find Kristoff’s piece quite revealing of the liberal mind. By claiming that Christians believe in things no reasonable person would, he can write us all off as equivalent to Arab terrorists. I believe that Jesus was and is the Son of God. Who needs a theologian to explain that away?
6 Andrew S. // Dec 27, 2003 at 11:37 pm
Heya–You asked who Pelikan is. He isn’t, strictly speaking, a theologian–he’s a historian of theology–but he’s one of the leading men in the field.
What’s scandalous about Kristoff’s column is that Pelikan (an Eastern Orthodox Christian) believes in the virgin birth. Pelikan says–correctly–that the oldest New Testament documents do not mention the virgin birth, but he never says that it did not happen. He’s definitely in the 90% that believes in it.
Kristoff just grabbed a line out of Pelikan’s “Mary Through The Centuries” and wrenched it out of context to make it look like Pelikan agreed with him.