The Shoe On The Other Foot

According to an article in yesterday's Washington Post, the humanists and secularists in Britain are buying ad space on the side of their famous mode of public transportation: the bus.

It's a simple poster. It reads, "There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

And when I read it, my first thought was what would likely happen if, say, that happened in Dallas. The local Christian radio station would be up-in-arms on their talk radio--likely playing excerpts from a nationally-known radio figure denouncing the act and telling us that the Godless in our society have plans to corrupt our children. Some preacher in Fort Worth would get time on local newscasts to give the Christian side of things. A whole bunch of moms-in-touch groups will be informed and mobilized. The rank-and-file will talk over coffee or in the break room about how things ain't like the good old days. Eventually, televangelists will get in on the act and use the event in their fundraising.

But let's try this from another angle, shall we?

Let's say that you have a particular belief system that denies the existence of God or maybe just says that you can't really know if God exists.

Let's say that you are a hard-working guy that likes his job and is happily married with a couple of kids.

Let's say that most of your days involve the hours at work, a quick meal with the missus, coaching little league, and reading a bedtime story to your daughter. Maybe poker night on Friday, or a date. You grab a round of golf with your buds on Saturday when you can. On Sundays, you leisurely read the paper over a cup of joe before loading up the family truckster for the latest round of soccer games.

You're just a guy living life as it comes at you.

And you roll down the interstate on the way to an across-town soccer tournament and you see a bloody arm with a railroad spike sticking out of it with a cross in the background with the words, "This blood's for you." It also has the name and address of a local church.

Or maybe one of those clever signs that reads, "Read The Book. There will be a test.--God" is across the street from the soccer fields.

Ever wondered how Joe Guy feels when he reads those kinds of things?

Maybe before we get all agog about how the atheists and agnostics are responsible for the moral decay of our society and are strategically having underground conferences to control the hearts and minds of our children...

...maybe we should think about how that's just likely a response to how our penchant for handing out tracts and putting up billboards and trying to reduce the greatest truths ever known to mankind down to a bumper sticker or metal fish on our bumpers...

...and maybe instead of the jokes and snide remarks and radio fodder...

...we'll think about how the attack on another person's belief system--the unloving, unrelational (re: lazy) approach--can be perceived.

And, we'll spend more time walking with Christ, living the exchanged life as a thankful response to His grace, love and mercy, instead of demeaning generally nice people & neighbors with bumper stickers and sound bytes.

Because, as I've said before, I firmly believe the days of presuppositional apologetics (re: crafting & winning debates with the idea of "proving" that the Christian faith is "right," rendering all others "false") are no longer effective. The arguments have been ping-ponged back and forth to the point that it's all pretty much a soup of white noise now. But you can't argue with a life well-lived.

So, let's get out there and live what we believe today, kids.

And no need to get all Chicken Little about the British bus system, okay?