Skip to main content

Response to Article in The Atlantic

I wrote this in response to an article in The Atlantic titled "Some of the Most Visible Christians in American are Failing the Coronavirus Test," found here: 



To Whomever at The Atlantic whose eyes this might reach:

I was saddened to read Jonathan Merritt's article about the attitudes of Christians about the coronavirus and President Trump. As a Christian in the evangelical world, I can speak for many when I say that the attitudes Merritt describes are the very ones many Christians are so sensitive about. We are very aware of our sullied reputation among nonbelievers, and many of us do everything in our power to share Christ's love for the world with both our actions and our faith. Merritt admits as much toward the end of his article when he acknowledges that "Most Christians...are trying their best to live a life consistent with their faith." While I don't know the believers Merritt mentions enough to defend their words (with the possible exception of John Piper), I think it's important to note that the notion of God's judgment for sin is a logical one that results from our knowledge of the Old Testament. I don't say this to support the idea that God is using the virus to judge us. I simply worry that Merritt may have misrepresented the attitudes of some of these men, whom Merritt casts as cold toward those who might suffer or die (although Reno's "demonic" quote, seems pretty clear). Instead, they may be interpreting it as best they know how. Personally, I believe that Romans 8:20-21 applies to the virus: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." Nature itself, which at the beginning God pronounced was "very good," was warped by man's decision to sin. If anyone is responsible for the virus, it is us.

With that said, I understand and certainly agree with the choice to highlight the evangelical support we see for Donald Trump in an article critical of American Christians. It surprises me, too, and as someone who does not support Trump for the reasons Merritt mentions, I was just as shocked to see such support among believers. Still, the ugliness of the church was never a reason to reject the one who formed it. Christ is always our model, and while the church is indeed filled with hypocrites, like me, many of us nevertheless--again, as Merritt acknowledges--strive to be Christ-like. It seems to me that the echo chamber of our culture today is perhaps all the worse now due to social isolation, among Christian and non-Christian alike; but while stereotypes about Christians have shades of truth to them (we are all judgmental and hypocritical at times, and there are those among us who are homophobic), they are--like Satan's tempting of Adam and Eve--a twisting of that truth, in this case by measuring the whole by the few.

Merritt writes that Christians, on the whole, try to live by Christ's values, that they "run soup kitchens and homeless shelters, hand out water bottles at summer community events, and are more likely than the average American to donate to charity." I have seen this time and again inside and outside the church's doors. I am simply asking that you get to know us on an individual level. The apostle John writes in his first epistle that we should not "believe every spirit," but instead should "test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." Just as John implores believers to watch for false Christians, so I ask that you measure us by our lives. "Anyone," John continues, "who does not know love does not know God." This is the test of Christian faith.

Finally, I am sorry. I am sorry for all of the harm we have done--that I have done-- that would serve to dim the light of Christ, if that were possible. Gratefully, Christ's glory cannot be dimmed, and that glory is reflected in his words to a world in need of him: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

Thank you for reading. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your articles and your willingness to hear me.

Tony Sciarini
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Persuasion

At different points in history, governments have devoted men, women, and resources to try to persuade others to their side. One significant example of this occurred in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew how important it was to make sure the German people were on his side as leader of the country. One way he did this was by controlling what people heard. Specifically, near the beginning of World War II, Hitler made it a crime for anyone in Germany to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. These were called the “extraordinary radio measures.” He did this to ensure that Germans weren’t being persuaded by enemy countries to question their loyalty to Hitler. He knew that a German listening to a radio broadcast from Britain might persuade that German to believe that Great Britain was the good guy and Hitler the bad guy. This was so important, in fact, that two people in Germany were actually executed because they had either listened to or planned to listen to a foreign radio broadcast (one...
Post a Comment
Read more

Comparison

Psychologists and others have studied ways in which we compare ourselves to each other. One man named Leon Festinger argued that we tend to compare ourselves to other people when we don’t know how good or bad we are at something (like football or playing the guitar). One way we do this is when we compare ourselves to those who are not as good as we are, to protect our self-esteem (called “downward social comparison;” example: we’re playing basketball and miss most of our shots, but we feel okay because a teammate wasn’t even given the ball). Another comparison we make is when we compare ourselves to others who are doing much better than we are (called “upward social comparison”). When we see others who appear to be doing better than we are, we can respond by trying to improve ourselves, or by trying to protect ourselves by telling ourselves it’s not that important. There was a study published in 1953 by Solomon Asch, who asked students to take part in a “vision test.” The par...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts on Academic Purpose

If I could tell my students how to choose a path of employment, I would emphasize that no effective writer, historian, athlete, musician, or scientist became such without dedicating themselves to some goal. For that to have taken place, however, the respective expert must have had a firm idea about why they were doing what they were doing. In other words, they must have had purpose. Karl Marx spent countless hours in English libraries, I would share, to understand the functioning of society in order to improve it; while Isaac Newton often went without food to gain a firmer grasp of the science of motion, and eventually revised that science. They did this because they had a clear purpose, a real reason for doing what they were doing that would affect others around them. I would communicate that whatever passion students tap into, it should be embarked upon with that kind of clear goal in mind. While they may not know which passions they have yet, I would emphasize that school is a time ...
Post a Comment
Read more