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Kvetching Christianity
Apr 08 | Pastor J.D. | 3 Comments |
I had a great time last night on UNC’s campus speaking to several hundred students in a forum called “kvetching Christianity.” If you look up “kvetcher” in Webster’s Dictionary, it is defined as “one who kvetches.” I want a job as “dictionary writer” (def: one who writes dictionaries).
Kvetching is when you express your anger, disgust, or disdain for something. The Christian community at UNC set up some boards in the pit this week that simply asked, “Why I’m Not a Christian,” and students filled them up with dozens and dozens of comments. Here’s the associate facebook page. Lots of entertaining stuff there.
I had the “privilege” then of speaking at the forum in response to those questions. It was, indeed, a great privilege, though I felt something like Barack Obama might feel addressing the NRA.
I don’t think a single “Christian” asked a question the whole night. This is good… as the event really brought out people who had genuine questions. There were Muslims, agnostics, and everything inbetween. Some questions were sincere, others antagonistic. I had some great conversations after the event with some students genuinely seeking God. I pray for them and wish them well in their search.
I recommended a few books and resources last night, but here they are again:
- I did a series of messages last year called “Why I am Not a Christian.”
They include things like “Hasn’t Science Disproved the Bible?”, “How
Could a Loving God Send Someone to Hell?”, “How can Christians possibly
Say Jesus is the Only Way?” “You can’t Trust the Bible!” and 3 others. (All are free downloads, in the player go to “sort options” and search for “Why I’m not a Christian” as a series) - The Reason for God, by Tim Keller. Here are some the talks he gave that go along with that.
Exclusivity:
How an there be just one true religion?
Suffering:
If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?
Absolutism:
Don’t we all have to find truth for ourselves
Injustice:
Hasn’t Christianity been an instrument for oppression?
Hell:
Isn’t the God of Christianity an angry Judge?
Doubt:
What should I do with my doubts?
Literalism:
Isn’t the Bible historically unreliable and regressive?
Also: The
Prodigal Sons: The Gospel is not religion or irreligion, but something
else
- Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott is a great beginning for people wanting an indepth but readable look at the heart of Christianity.
- For those who have been in Bart Ehrman’s classes and really want to dig down deeper in those issues, I’d suggest Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Also, here’s an MP3 debate between Bart Ehrman and Craig Evans, two top scholars in the field of NT. This site includes a running summary of the debate with some nice snarky comments.There’s some great resources at the bottom of the summary page for further study.
- To the several Muslim friends I met last night, thanks especially for your questions. For further study, I might suggest some chapters of my own book I just published, Breaking the Islam Code.
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UNC Cornerstone really appreciated J.D. coming to our campus and speaking. The event went really well. If any of you would like to see some of the students objections to Christianity and the questions that were asked, you can check out our blog post at http://www.unccornerstone.org/2010/04/kvetching-christianity-why-im-not-a-christian/
Thanks!
Tis easier to find the ‘Why I’m not a Christian’ series by clicking ‘sort options’ when the sermon archive loads up and just scrolling down to the relevant series. Typing it into the search field didn’t really help much for me.
Will be have a listen! Cheers!
I read the preview of your book “Breaking the Islam Code”. Nice book. How can Africans (particularly Cameroonians) purchase it?(seeing that internet trading is not very practical here)
God bless you.