Christians Might Be Crazy

People outside the church have always thought we are mistaken about Jesus and His claims. But their newest objections to Christianity have taken a harsher turn. These criticisms are not just vaguely intellectual. They get highly emotional. People believe our exclusive message is not only incorrect but also immoral. This is a massive shift from head to heart.
Long-time Christian strategist Tom Gilson explains what is going on. He picks apart the arguments of Kirby Godsey, a former Baptist university president who has launched a full-on assault on Christian exclusivism.1
Gilson writes, “Godsey doesn’t tell us we should reject exclusivism because it is false. Instead he says we should reject it because it’s bad, and those who believe it are bad. Exclusivism, he tells us, is arrogant, born out of psychological weakness, ‘abrasive and hostile,’ authoritarian and so on.”2
In their book American Grace, authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell call this the “Aunt Susan Principle.” The gist is that Aunt Susan was really nice and loved me and did not believe in Jesus, but she lived a good life and believed in God and if you say she is in hell you are being very mean and cruel.
This new objection means that we cannot open our mouths without coming o as unloving. After studying all of our focus group responses, our facilitator summed up what people considered the extreme wrongs committed by many Christians:
They want to dominate any conversation involving religion.
They are totally focused on convincing you that their beliefs are right and yours are wrong.
They are close-minded to any alternatives.
They criticize and condemn any religion but theirs.
They refuse to listen to what you have to say regarding your beliefs, decisions, and rationales.
They get in your face, get loud and pushy—and can’t accept agreeing to disagree.
They won’t give up until they convert you or you turn your back on them and walk away.
Not long ago, people just thought Christians were stupid. Now they think we are mean or even immoral.
This new objection requires a new response. Gilson says, “No longer is it sufficient just to defend the truth that Jesus is the only way to God. We must also demonstrate that believing that doesn’t make one a bad person.”3
A generation ago we could get away with lining up Christian intellectuals to present evidence for the truth. Today we must prove our own love, care, and authenticity and connect it to God’s endless affection for us. Our responses cannot simply be intellectually coherent. They must also be emotionally compelling.
EXCLUSIVE LOVE
The couple on my couch wanted to hash out their marriage troubles. Unsure what was going on, I prayed for them and asked how I could help.
The wife loved her husband. On the job he was a hard worker, and at home a loving husband, but she admitted she found him stifling. She wanted to stick together and thought they could work out their differences. She was likeable and reasonable. The husband said he was embarrassed they needed to meet with me and wished his wife would just change her mind and see things his way. He was obviously hurt. He bristled.
For almost an hour this couple took turns speaking in vague generalities. Finally, I asked pointedly, “What do you think the problem is?” She said, “He’s very demanding, jealous, and controlling.” He said, “I don’t like my wife having intimate relationships with other men.”
I didn’t see that response coming!
There was a moment of awkward silence as I gathered my thoughts. Then the husband explained, “I don’t think it’s right for a married woman to sleep with other men. She wants an open marriage. I don’t. I think our marriage should be exclusive.”
The wife jumped in to accuse her husband of being “old-fashioned” and “narrow-minded.” She would be happier, and their marriage would last longer, if she had her husband plus other relationships. She enjoyed many men and did not want to limit her experience to one mate. The husband just wanted his wife.
Do you agree with the husband or the wife?
Despite all of our erratic cultural boundaries regarding sexuality, the polls consistently show that most Americans think adultery is wrong. Being against your husband or wife having sex outside marriage is one of the few moral boundaries most people still agree on. If your spouse sleeps with somebody else, you want to cry foul.
The exclusivism of the Christian faith is more than a theoretical abstraction. It gets to the core of how we relate to God. The Bible repeatedly says that God loves His people like a husband loves His wife. We might consider His exclusive demands intolerant, bigoted, and close-minded, but they actually reflect His relentless pursuit of a loving, unique, and devoted relationship. When the God of the Bible sees people chasing other gods, He feels like a husband who walks in on his wife with another man. When they dabble in other religions and spiritualties, God calls it adultery.4
1.Kirby Godsey, Is God a Christian? Creating a Community of Conversation (Mercer University Press, 2011).
2.Tom Gilson, “The Morality of Christian Exclusivism (Part One),” First Things (June 10, 2011), http://frstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/06/the-morality-of-christian-exclusivism-part-one/.
3. Ibid.
4. For further study see Raymond C. Ortund Jr.’s God’s Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery (New Studies in Biblical Theology) Paperback (Westmond, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

People outside the church have always thought we are mistaken about Jesus and His claims. But their newest objections to Christianity have taken a harsher turn. These criticisms are not just vaguely intellectual. They get highly emotional. People believe our exclusive message is not only incorrect but also immoral. This is a massive shift from head to heart.
Long-time Christian strategist Tom Gilson explains what is going on. He picks apart the arguments of Kirby Godsey, a former Baptist university president who has launched a full-on assault on Christian exclusivism.1
Gilson writes, “Godsey doesn’t tell us we should reject exclusivism because it is false. Instead he says we should reject it because it’s bad, and those who believe it are bad. Exclusivism, he tells us, is arrogant, born out of psychological weakness, ‘abrasive and hostile,’ authoritarian and so on.”2
In their book American Grace, authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell call this the “Aunt Susan Principle.” The gist is that Aunt Susan was really nice and loved me and did not believe in Jesus, but she lived a good life and believed in God and if you say she is in hell you are being very mean and cruel.
This new objection means that we cannot open our mouths without coming o as unloving. After studying all of our focus group responses, our facilitator summed up what people considered the extreme wrongs committed by many Christians:
They want to dominate any conversation involving religion.
They are totally focused on convincing you that their beliefs are right and yours are wrong.
They are close-minded to any alternatives.
They criticize and condemn any religion but theirs.
They refuse to listen to what you have to say regarding your beliefs, decisions, and rationales.
They get in your face, get loud and pushy—and can’t accept agreeing to disagree.
They won’t give up until they convert you or you turn your back on them and walk away.
Not long ago, people just thought Christians were stupid. Now they think we are mean or even immoral.
This new objection requires a new response. Gilson says, “No longer is it sufficient just to defend the truth that Jesus is the only way to God. We must also demonstrate that believing that doesn’t make one a bad person.”3
A generation ago we could get away with lining up Christian intellectuals to present evidence for the truth. Today we must prove our own love, care, and authenticity and connect it to God’s endless affection for us. Our responses cannot simply be intellectually coherent. They must also be emotionally compelling.
EXCLUSIVE LOVE
The couple on my couch wanted to hash out their marriage troubles. Unsure what was going on, I prayed for them and asked how I could help.
The wife loved her husband. On the job he was a hard worker, and at home a loving husband, but she admitted she found him stifling. She wanted to stick together and thought they could work out their differences. She was likeable and reasonable. The husband said he was embarrassed they needed to meet with me and wished his wife would just change her mind and see things his way. He was obviously hurt. He bristled.
For almost an hour this couple took turns speaking in vague generalities. Finally, I asked pointedly, “What do you think the problem is?” She said, “He’s very demanding, jealous, and controlling.” He said, “I don’t like my wife having intimate relationships with other men.”
I didn’t see that response coming!
There was a moment of awkward silence as I gathered my thoughts. Then the husband explained, “I don’t think it’s right for a married woman to sleep with other men. She wants an open marriage. I don’t. I think our marriage should be exclusive.”
The wife jumped in to accuse her husband of being “old-fashioned” and “narrow-minded.” She would be happier, and their marriage would last longer, if she had her husband plus other relationships. She enjoyed many men and did not want to limit her experience to one mate. The husband just wanted his wife.
Do you agree with the husband or the wife?
Despite all of our erratic cultural boundaries regarding sexuality, the polls consistently show that most Americans think adultery is wrong. Being against your husband or wife having sex outside marriage is one of the few moral boundaries most people still agree on. If your spouse sleeps with somebody else, you want to cry foul.
The exclusivism of the Christian faith is more than a theoretical abstraction. It gets to the core of how we relate to God. The Bible repeatedly says that God loves His people like a husband loves His wife. We might consider His exclusive demands intolerant, bigoted, and close-minded, but they actually reflect His relentless pursuit of a loving, unique, and devoted relationship. When the God of the Bible sees people chasing other gods, He feels like a husband who walks in on his wife with another man. When they dabble in other religions and spiritualties, God calls it adultery.4
1.Kirby Godsey, Is God a Christian? Creating a Community of Conversation (Mercer University Press, 2011).
2.Tom Gilson, “The Morality of Christian Exclusivism (Part One),” First Things (June 10, 2011), http://frstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/06/the-morality-of-christian-exclusivism-part-one/.
3. Ibid.
4. For further study see Raymond C. Ortund Jr.’s God’s Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery (New Studies in Biblical Theology) Paperback (Westmond, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

In a world where we can instantly find, buy, and swap anything, spirituality becomes just another commodity in the Amazon store of life. And what most people are shopping for are practical tips to live a better life according to whatever they define as better. When I spoke to Indian-born Christian thinker Ravi Zacharias for this project, he called these people “happy pagans.” These people are in no mood to ponder the four great questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. They suffer no pain. They feel no distress. The anvil has not fallen out of the sky on their life. They anticipate good times ahead and see little reason to include the Christian faith in their future. Why would anyone on a roll waste time on a religion with downer concepts like judgment and hell?
But something deeper than consumerism drives the belief that “there are lots of religions, and I’m not sure only ONE has to be the right way.”
People have always had a beef with Christianity’s claim of exclusivism. They say it is wrong to claim that Jesus is the one Savior of the world or that faith in Him is the one and only route to God. If they were back in my old hood next to the flight path, they might say there are many airlines and flights that get you to God. They would assure you there are tons of places to take off and land.
This opposition to exclusivism is vaguely intellectual. Critics of Christianity contend that all religions are limited in their grasp of reality, as in the old story of several blind men groping an elephant. A guy who finds the trunk does not describe the elephant in the same way as another who discovers an ear. Each has only a limited perspective of a larger whole, just as each religion only sees part of God. According to this analogy, every religion actually describes the same thing. Like a guy from Phoenix said, “Jesus, or God as we know Him, Allah, Yahweh, they’re just different names for the same Almighty being.” In this scheme, religious viewpoints are essentially interchangeable and equally true.
I don’t think anyone actually lives like one faith is as valid as the next. Hardly anyone signs up to be a suicide bomber to be rewarded life with 72 virgins in paradise. Most do not worry about evil spirits lurking in trees and rocks. People feel safe ignoring Zeus. And on Sunday mornings many people would rather worship at the Church of the Holy Comforter than walk through a church door.
This viewpoint of extreme religious pluralism doesn’t hold up. Religious followers do not agree that all religions believe the same thing. Saying that all religions teach the same thing is highly offensive to all followers of all faiths. If you go up to a devout Muslim and say, “Uh, do you believe the same thing as a Buddhist?” they would say, “The Buddhist? The guy who doesn’t even believe in God? No!” If you ask a Universalist, who believes that everybody goes to heaven, if they think like a Mormon, they will gladly buy you a coffee and explain how they are radically different.
People who, in the name of tolerance, reduce all religions to a handful of shared moral principles fail to notice their own staggering intolerance. They think they are being nice, but they are not.
Ravi Zacharias has traveled to almost 70 nations and has made the study of religions a life pursuit. He points out that Buddhism is supposed to be the most peace-loving and accommodating of all viewpoints, and yet Gautama Buddha, born a Hindu, rejected two fundamental doctrines of Hinduism: the caste system and the full authority of sacred Hindu texts. As Zacharias concluded in our phone conversation for this project, “The most unfortunate assumption that is made is that all religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different. It’s exactly the opposite. Religions are fundamentally different and at best superficially similar.”
Christianity is not alone in saying its beliefs supplant all others. Every faith and every belief system make exclusive claims. In fact, anyone who asserts anything proves they implicitly accept some things as true and reject others as false. It doesn’t matter whether the subject of conversation is Christ or college basketball or climate change.
From our standpoint as Christians, a world full of religious options boils down to two things: good works or God’s grace. It is one or the other. Other religions require good works—living a moral life, obeying the law, reincarnating to pay off your karmic debt. Christianity holds to God’s grace—getting to heaven not because of what we do but because of what Jesus has done. We do not ascend up to God through our piety or good works. God became man to reconcile mankind to God. Like the apostle Paul wrote, “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time” (1 Tim. 2:5–6 NLT). What we believe is different.

For many of the non-Christians in our survey and focus groups—people who have left or never been part of church—that scene illustrates an ideal world where religions peacefully coexist. I get how they feel. Growing up in a very diverse religious, racial, and cultural neighborhood, my friends and I each had our own beliefs. No one had to hide their traditions. And certainly no one ever compelled others to accept their faith. It all seemed pretty simple.
For me things got complicated when I started wondering which if any religion was real and true. One day in college, I came to believe the words of Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NLT). Once persuaded of that truth, I suddenly found the stakes higher for me and everyone around me. It mattered to me whether they believed who Jesus is and what He had done for them at the cross. I went from person to person passing along His words that He was the one and only way to heaven. I will not say I always did that perfectly or even tactfully, but I do not doubt my goal was right.
Many non-Christians would take issue with my newfound beliefs and actions. Just under half of our phone survey participants (42%) agreed that “There are lots of religions, and I’m not sure only one has to be the right way.”
Across our focus groups, we heard people say they are happy to leave Christians alone in our beliefs, even if those beliefs are delusions, many added. A man in Phoenix said, “If they want a false hope, or they need some sort of hope in their life, Santa Claus, to get through, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
A few indicated they might be open to developing some sort of faith in their own time and way. One guy cracked, “If I wake up tomorrow and see the Virgin Mary in my pancake and decide that this is something I’ve been missing out of my life since I’ve been born, and I want to learn the practices of Christianity and all that, conversion is something that’s my decision, and I’m fine with that.”
But despite this apparent openness, there was a universal boundary not to be crossed. Our focus-group participants unanimously agreed that it was wrong for Christians to advocate their faith, especially the claim that Jesus is the only way to reach God. The guy waiting for the face of Mary in his flapjacks said this:
“What I don’t like is it’s saying that they believe that the only way to Heaven is by being born again and accepting Jesus Christ. That I don’t like because if I feel that even though there are elements of Christianity that I identify with and I like, but there are elements of Buddhism that I also identify with. So, I don’t really think that I belong to any organized religion but I do feel spiritual, I feel a connection to God. When I pass I want to be with God. I want to be in Heaven that I believe in. Having someone tell me, ‘Oh, no, no, no you think you’re going to have a relationship with God but unless you’re born again and accept Jesus, that’s not happening for you.’ That I don’t like.”
Many people in our focus groups had fundamental disagreements with the Christian faith about who goes to heaven or hell:
A young guy from Austin shared: “When I got to college I joined a fraternity, met one of my pledge brothers and he’s from Long Island. He’s Jewish, his whole family is Jewish, they all stay kosher, all these things. I was thinking about it, he’s a really good friend of mine and I was just thinking about it. One of the reasons the Bible, not the Bible necessarily but religion, tells me that he’s supposed to go to hell because he doesn’t believe in Jesus. I just don’t understand things like—that’s just a personal experience of how it’s hard for me to reconcile someone who I believe is a good person.”
A San Francisco woman said: “I’m comfortable not knowing what happens when we die, that sort of thing. That’s my stance. I guess I’m agnostic.”
And then there was this from a woman in Phoenix: “If Jeffrey Dahmer was on his last dying breath and was honestly, truly sorry in his heart, that he’d get let into the gates of heaven and sit down at the table and eat with all of us people that have tried to do right…. I don’t care how much he asks for forgiveness, I don’t want to sit at the table with him. If there’s a third option, I want to go there.”
People who spoke up in our focus groups clearly want freedom to pick and choose from various spiritual beliefs, keeping what they consider valuable and relevant and rejecting the rest. Like people scooping up food at a buffet, they consider it their right to take it or leave it:
Austin guy: “I also don’t think it’s necessary to believe in the myth of Resurrection or even God in order to take His teachings as a philosophy. I don’t think it’s necessary to believe in supernatural occurrences, just to understand the point of His teachings.”
A woman in Boston recalled: “We had a youth pastor who basically was very young and hip, and he sat down and the first thing he said to us was, ‘The Bible is a book of stories written by men, interpreted by men, and it’s just to help us understand our faith.’ And so, of course, that got me to think, ‘Oh, this is just a book of stories. This isn’t necessarily the Word of God.’ We all had this very inquisitive group…It was very open, learning about other faiths and being inquisitive about how our faiths are tied together, rather than what separates us. That’s at 14, I started learning about that. My mom was nontraditional, into metaphysics, and so when I started having these questions, then I started asking her, ‘What are these other faiths?’ and ‘What goes on?’ She really was the one who helped me to understand metaphysics, universalism, Buddhism, all of these other things.”
And people take issue not just with the Christian message—what we say—but how we say it. Some prefer we simply keep our beliefs to ourselves:
The same Boston woman shared: “Then there’s [sic] other people that I’ve encountered that have tried to force the Word down my throat and tell me that I’m going to go to hell.”
A guy from Phoenix said, “I think a big thing for me, at least, is when people are so out with their religion where it’s just so in your face and it’s so pushy on me. I really don’t like that. It really turns me off. Even when it’s not forceful. I find it odd sometimes because I think that your relationship with God and religion is just something that you should share with yourself and God. I don’t think that it’s something that should always be talked about and always be out there.”
These comments all ring true with what I hear all the time as I encounter people as a pastor and in everyday life. So how do we respond? Do we shut up, ramp it up… or maybe change our approach? We will explore this more in upcoming daily devotionals.

Across our phone surveys and focus groups for the project Christians Might Be Crazy, we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. There are at least six areas in which Christianity has brought equality. Today we look at gender equality which.
#6 GENDER EQUALITY
People outside the church might be willing to consider the historical fact that biblical Christianity originated the ideal of equality that inspires Western values and continues to take hold throughout the world. They might even acknowledge that Jesus’ followers have boldly led the way toward racial, legal, social, economic, and educational equality. But many nevertheless flatly reject the idea that Christians believe in gender equality because of inequities they perceive among us. Here is a sample of statements we heard in our focus groups:
Austin woman: “I think that the overbearing patriarchy of the Bible has inadvertently put women in the position that they’re not respected as much and that they don’t have as much equality.”
Austin woman: “Men are always supposed to be above women. Women can’t be above a man…. It’s basically almost this thing that worships men.”
Boston guy: “Women can’t be priests. Women can’t be in control of their body, even if it puts their lives at risk.”
Boston woman: “I would take it one step further and say not only is it exclusive, it also excludes women, making it a male-dominated religion. And the way that women are talked to and degraded under the guise of Christianity is unacceptable.”
Our group facilitator summed up a prevailing attitude among women:
“Women are so easily able to use the Bible as a reason not to be involved in the Christian faith because the stories involve women as chattel, women as owned…. That was their biggest push away. They don’t believe they’re being good mothers if they are ‘enslaved’ to something written 2,000 years ago.”
I grieve when I hear these things. Besides the issues that women have with the Bible or what they see acted out at church, I know there are other unspoken issues. The real trouble in gender equality today is men—especially young men. Guys are waiting longer than ever to marry for the first time. Until they make that commitment, they are dating, relating, and fornicating. They are drinking, carousing, and pornifying. They objectify, sexually assault, and impregnate women with no intent of marrying or fathering. They get high and laugh away their days, not knowing that their life is the joke. They might have a degree and a condo but they do not have a clue. They are anatomically men but functionally boys. They are boys who can shave. Perhaps ours is not an age of gender equality because men have so much catching up to do.
None of that reflects the ideal lived out by Jesus, who was a revolutionary in His relationships with women. He was unafraid to break manmade cultural taboos, although was careful never to transgress God’s law. Jesus talked with the woman at the well and the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12–13). He cast demons out of women and healed them (Matt. 9:20–22; Luke 8:40–56, 13:10–17). He lifted up women as examples as He preached (Matt. 25:1–10; Luke 4:26, 18:1–5, 21:1–4), and He taught women along with men, a highly controversial act in that day (Luke 10:38–42, 23:27–31; John 20:10–18).
Jesus did not inch when a sinful woman anointed Him and scandalized the religious guys who witnessed her devotion (Luke 7:36–50). Jesus was close friends with Mary and Martha, women He loved like sisters who had Him over to eat in their home (Luke 10:38–39). Women were among the most generous financial supporters of Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1–3). And women were granted the great honor of being the first to discover Jesus had risen (Matt. 28:1–10).
Rodney Stark sums up the dynamics of Jesus’ ministry among women and the appeal of the new faith He founded:
In Roman as in Jewish society, women were regarded as inherently inferior to men. Husbands could divorce their wives but wives could not divorce their husbands. In rabbinic circles, only males were allowed to study the Torah. Jesus challenged these arrangements. Although he called only men to be apostles, Jesus readily accepted women into his circle of friends and disciples…Christianity’s appeal for women was a major reason that it grew so rapidly in competition with other religions of the Roman Empire. Then, as now, most Christians were women. The new religion offered women not only greater status and influence within the church but also more protection as wives and mothers.1
I have been to the Middle East, and to this day, their cultures treat women considerably different than those nations influenced by Christianity. Jesus elevated the status of women in a way that much of the world never has.
Christians since that time have indeed been pioneers for gender equality. They fought against cultures where women were relegated as second-class citizens and regarded as the property of their husband. India offers painful examples such as the practice of suttee, burning a wife alive with her dead husband since she had no point in living if not to serve him. Female infanticide was rampant. Little girls were made “child widows,” put to work as temple prostitutes for male pleasure. These evils were outlawed with the coming of Christian missionaries such as William Carey and Amy Carmichael. Elsewhere, Christians in China led efforts to ban the custom of binding women’s feet, and Christian activism in America helped secure voting and property rights for women.
Scripture teaches a fundamental equality of women and men. One of the best-known verses Christians cite to prove this point comes from the apostle Paul, who wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
I know we cannot argue anyone into agreement on this issue. More than anything, non-Christians want to see living proof of our commitment to equality. But I do think it is fair at some point in our conversations with non-Christians for us to say, “In the Bible all people are created equal because they are made by God who loves them. So why do you think people are equal?”
The burden of proof falls on our critics, because other belief systems do not come with a built-in respect for human worth. Whatever value non-Christians place on equality derives from the lingering ideals of Christendom. Like most people who move homes, when folks move on from Christendom to their new cultural worldview, they bring a few of their favorite things with them from the past.
Without a thorough grounding in the biblical truth that all people are created equal, people come up empty on reasons to advocate equality. With no moral justification for equal rights or background in the ideals inherent in the Bible, they offer up all kinds of inconsistent ideas of where equality does or does not apply.
1. https://www.newsweek.com/2000-years-jesus-164826

Across our phone surveys and focus groups for the project Christians Might Be Crazy, we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. There are at least six areas in which Christianity has brought equality. In today’s devotional we look at legal and social equality.#2 LEGAL EQUALITYChristians were pioneers for legal equality. In most places throughout human history, the dictum that might is right has prevailed. Those in charge made, enforced, bent, and changed laws to their advantage. But the kings and peasants of ancient Israel lived under the rule of law given by God. The Bible begins with five books referred to as “the Law” because they contain 613 rules governing God’s Old Testament people. Both the Old and New Testament contain other laws that grow out of God’s unchanging character. It’s important to note that Scripture holds these laws to be binding on all people—no matter who they are or where they rank in society.We may assume that equality for all people under the law is normative, but it is in fact not so. In much of the world (past and present), those with power and money live completely above the law as a law unto themselves. The influence of the biblical concept of law ruling over all people equally has forever altered Western culture.Christianity began as an unwanted and outlawed fringe ministry group that was often persecuted. With the Roman Emperor Constantine, things changed as Christianity found itself as the official religion of the famed Roman Empire. As a patchwork of previous political groups, there was no such thing as consistent laws across the empire. Making matters even worse, only the richest people could afford the professional help to navigate the complex legal system. As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, spiritual leaders called bishops were given oversight of various geographic areas, and this included the legal right bestowed by the government to decide legal cases. Eventually, there was a Christian named Justinian who became Emperor, and he was largely responsible for establishing a more organized and formalized version of Roman law that helped pave the way for the legal systems in America and Europe today. As Rodney Stark notes, “Documents as important as the American Declaration of Independence or the European Charter of Human Rights can therefore be traced back to the ideas of the Christian legal system of Justinian.”1Because all people equally bear God’s image, heterosexuals and homosexuals stand eye-to-eye as human beings and deserve equal protection under the law. For this reason, most Christian leaders I know agree that legal protection should be given to gay couples on issues like inheritance rights, hospital visitation, and end-of-life decisions. While many of us disagree with the gay community over the definition of marriage, we believe that all people—gay, straight, and otherwise—deserve legal equality.#3 SOCIAL EQUALITYChristians also took strides toward social equality—especially when it came to unwanted children. Children in the time of Jesus often lacked legal protection or parental affection. Sacrificing and abandoning children was common. Discarded children often died from exposure or were taken as slaves, prostitutes, or gladiators. This was especially true for children from the bottom rungs of society. But that’s just where Jesus came from. He was the King of the Universe come as a baby to a poor rural family. And in a society that dismissed and abused children regularly, Jesus loved kids and kids loved Him. They flocked to Jesus, and He welcomed, embraced, and prayed over them, as we learn from some of the fondest Bible stories ever. Because of His example, Christians began to treat children differently, including adopting discarded children. That work still continues with orphanages, foster care, and adoptions around the world developed and operated by Christians who have God’s heart for the value of all children from all backgrounds.That same heart was extended to the way Christians cared for the needy. Hospitals in the Roman Empire were not open to the poor. But Jesus the Great Physician (Luke 4:23, 5:31) and healer inspired Christians to care for people’s physical as well as spiritual wellbeing. Luke the medical doctor and author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts wrote more of the New Testament by volume than anyone, attentively recording the healing ministries of Jesus and the early church. Later, the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) decreed that hospitals should be established wherever there was a Christian church. Many modern hospitals and senior care facilities trace their roots to Christian denominations. Even the Red Cross began as a medical ministry founded by a Christian businessman and activist, Henri Dunant.Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How  Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005), 28.

Across our phone surveys and focus groups for the project Christians Might Be Crazy, we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. There are at least six areas in which Christianity has brought equality. In today’s devotional we look at legal and social equality.#2 LEGAL EQUALITYChristians were pioneers for legal equality. In most places throughout human history, the dictum that might is right has prevailed. Those in charge made, enforced, bent, and changed laws to their advantage. But the kings and peasants of ancient Israel lived under the rule of law given by God. The Bible begins with five books referred to as “the Law” because they contain 613 rules governing God’s Old Testament people. Both the Old and New Testament contain other laws that grow out of God’s unchanging character. It’s important to note that Scripture holds these laws to be binding on all people—no matter who they are or where they rank in society.We may assume that equality for all people under the law is normative, but it is in fact not so. In much of the world (past and present), those with power and money live completely above the law as a law unto themselves. The influence of the biblical concept of law ruling over all people equally has forever altered Western culture.Christianity began as an unwanted and outlawed fringe ministry group that was often persecuted. With the Roman Emperor Constantine, things changed as Christianity found itself as the official religion of the famed Roman Empire. As a patchwork of previous political groups, there was no such thing as consistent laws across the empire. Making matters even worse, only the richest people could afford the professional help to navigate the complex legal system. As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, spiritual leaders called bishops were given oversight of various geographic areas, and this included the legal right bestowed by the government to decide legal cases. Eventually, there was a Christian named Justinian who became Emperor, and he was largely responsible for establishing a more organized and formalized version of Roman law that helped pave the way for the legal systems in America and Europe today. As Rodney Stark notes, “Documents as important as the American Declaration of Independence or the European Charter of Human Rights can therefore be traced back to the ideas of the Christian legal system of Justinian.”1Because all people equally bear God’s image, heterosexuals and homosexuals stand eye-to-eye as human beings and deserve equal protection under the law. For this reason, most Christian leaders I know agree that legal protection should be given to gay couples on issues like inheritance rights, hospital visitation, and end-of-life decisions. While many of us disagree with the gay community over the definition of marriage, we believe that all people—gay, straight, and otherwise—deserve legal equality.#3 SOCIAL EQUALITYChristians also took strides toward social equality—especially when it came to unwanted children. Children in the time of Jesus often lacked legal protection or parental affection. Sacrificing and abandoning children was common. Discarded children often died from exposure or were taken as slaves, prostitutes, or gladiators. This was especially true for children from the bottom rungs of society. But that’s just where Jesus came from. He was the King of the Universe come as a baby to a poor rural family. And in a society that dismissed and abused children regularly, Jesus loved kids and kids loved Him. They flocked to Jesus, and He welcomed, embraced, and prayed over them, as we learn from some of the fondest Bible stories ever. Because of His example, Christians began to treat children differently, including adopting discarded children. That work still continues with orphanages, foster care, and adoptions around the world developed and operated by Christians who have God’s heart for the value of all children from all backgrounds.That same heart was extended to the way Christians cared for the needy. Hospitals in the Roman Empire were not open to the poor. But Jesus the Great Physician (Luke 4:23, 5:31) and healer inspired Christians to care for people’s physical as well as spiritual wellbeing. Luke the medical doctor and author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts wrote more of the New Testament by volume than anyone, attentively recording the healing ministries of Jesus and the early church. Later, the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) decreed that hospitals should be established wherever there was a Christian church. Many modern hospitals and senior care facilities trace their roots to Christian denominations. Even the Red Cross began as a medical ministry founded by a Christian businessman and activist, Henri Dunant.Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How  Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005), 28.

After preaching a late-night service in a very unchurched major American city, a group of young singles approached me in front of the stage to have what was a pointed but respectful conversation. None of them seemed to be Christians, but they have very strong criticisms of my faith. In the end, the gist of their view was that Christianity was immoral. They are not alone in their conclusion.Across our phone surveys and focus groups for the project Christians Might Be Crazy, we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. There are at least six areas in which Christianity has brought equality.#1 RACIAL EQUALITYChristians broke ground on the battle for racial equality. Why? The Bible teaches that every person is created by God in His image and descended from one family. Each has the opportunity to be adopted into a spiritual family with God as Father and Jesus as Big Brother. Racial equality logically follows.Jesus Himself broke harsh racial taboos by making friends with a Samaritan woman (John 4:27–42). The Samaritans were the next-door neighbors of Israel who were despised for their mixed-race heritage and false beliefs. The Jews had a habit of walking the long way around their land to avoid contact with its supposedly disgusting people. But Jesus strolled right into enemy turf and sat down for a chat with a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well.The woman was alone, an outcast among outcasts. After five failed marriages, she was living with the latest guy. But God had come to earth to court this woman at a lonely well in the heat of the noon sun. Jesus revealed her sin, exposing the dirtiest and most scarred portion of her soul, the part that smelled like sin and death and hell. He cleaned it, healed it, forgave it, and replaced it with grace.People ask why Jesus or His first followers didn’t overthrow slavery in the Roman Empire if they cared so much about equality. Besides overlooking the ridiculousness of a few hunted disciples hurling themselves against an immense social institution protected by the might of Rome, that dig ignores the radical steps Jesus and early Christians took that set the stage for widespread change centuries later.Slavery was so pervasive in the days of Jesus that in some parts of the empire roughly half of the population were slaves.1Jesus broke ranks with His religious and political peers by identifying closely with those in bondage, calling Himself a “servant” or “slave” and welcoming them as His friends (John 13:4–5; Mark 10:45; Phil. 2:7). The early church included many slaves who were attracted to a faith that treated them as equals. This reality explains why the New Testament contains instructions regarding slaves—many were church members, leaders, and pastors. The apostle Paul called himself a slave of Christ (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10; Philem. 10). He listed slave trading among the most heinous of sins (1 Tim. 1:10) and pleaded for the escaped slave Onesimus to be received as a brother (Philem. 10–19).Following in Paul’s footsteps some 500 years later, the former slave Saint Patrick became a powerful Christian voice opposing slavery, one of the first public figures to take such a bold stand on the issue. Historian Rodney Stark argues that slavery in medieval Europe ended “only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews).”2The power and reach of the church over civil authority made that prohibition practically a decree of universal abolition.Eric Metaxas describes similar Christian involvement in bringing down slavery in England and the British Empire in the early 1800s in the email interview we conducted for this project:It was Christians who fought passionately to end the slave trade and slavery itself. William Wilberforce and other Christians stood against secularists and for African slaves precisely because they believed that all men are brothers and all human beings are created in the image of God. Those who did not believe the Bible thought that notion a joke, and thought the darker-skinned races to be as obviously inferior to the light-skinned races as dogs were superior to rats or bugs.Scholar Wayne Grudem added in our interview for this project that fully two-thirds of the leaders of the American abolitionist movement were Christians preaching that slavery should end. In more recent years, it was Christians like Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, and Martin Luther King Jr. who used biblical imagery and language to move a nation to stand against racial injustice, as Metaxas pointed out in our interview.Christians across time and geography have followed Jesus’ example of welcoming all peoples. Today, Jesus is worshiped among more races and cultures than any deity in history. There is simply no organization of any kind that has as much racial diversity as Christianity.1.Walter A. Elwell and P. W. Comfort, P. W. eds. Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001) 1206.Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005), 28.

Across our phone surveys and focus groups for the project Christians Might Be Crazy, we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal.This objection is a conversation stopper. Who wants to wave the flag for inequality? What decent human being sets out to oppose civil rights? But when people say Christians are on the wrong side of history, I have to interrupt. These accusers are on the wrong side of the facts.The equality of all human beings is a biblical idea that has made a powerful impact far beyond the walls of church. It has touched societies around the globe and been adopted even by our most vocal opponents.Scholar Nancy Pearcey points out that none other than the eminent atheist Friedrich Nietzsche gave Christianity credit for the concept of equality. In The Will to Power, he wrote, “Another Christian concept… has passed even more deeply into the tissue of modernity: the concept of the ‘equality of souls before God.’ This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.” Pearcey cites the postmodernist Richard Rorty as another radical atheist who admits that “the idea of universal human rights was a completely novel concept in history, resting on the biblical teaching ‘that all human beings are created in the image of God.’” Pearcey comments: “Rorty admits that atheists like himself have no basis for human rights within their own worldview. He calls himself a ‘freeloading atheist’ because he is fully aware that he is borrowing the idea of rights and human dignity from the Christian heritage.”1Whether others acknowledge it or not, this basic Christian belief has driven the fight for equal rights throughout history. Pearcey maintains that the success of many secular movements advocating equality today derives from “a beauty and an appeal that comes from their origin in a biblical worldview.” Arguments are ripped from their Christian context, redefined, and distorted, but they retain a measure of their original power.2She says, “The only reason that movements for equality are making headway today is that they borrow their best lines from Christianity.”3Even as our neighbors and friends join together to right wrongs like human trafficking for sexual slavery, we should not let others hijack our leading role in human rights. Christians are not tagalongs or freeloaders. We have been at the forefront of battles for racial, legal, social, economic, educational, and gender equality throughout history and across societies.Both the Old and New Testament put these assumptions into practice by affirming equality in practical ways. Here are a few examples of the dignity the Bible brings to humanity:“Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great.” (Lev. 19:15 NIV)“Showing partiality is never good.” (Prov. 28:21 NLT)“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col. 3:11 ESV)“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” (James 2:1)he right to judge them. Over and over the teacher threw around the word equality to describe same-sex marriage adding that anyone who disagreed was unloving. This perspective was embedded in the curriculum my friend’s daughter was to learn and affirm, which to this Christian single mom felt more like indoctrination than education.The conversation in the car that particular day was triggered by a bumper sticker in the next lane that said, “I believe in marriage equality,” a popular slogan where I live. It sends an unsubtle message that opponents of same-sex marriage are in fact advocates of inequality.FEEDBACKAcross our phone surveys and focus groups we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. They perceive this bias as both a historical pattern and a present reality. One man explained, “Since its very conception, people have never been equal in Christianity according to the way it’s been preached. It’s never been about equality. It’s community versus community. To put it in broad terms, the haves and have nots. You don’t belong to my community; therefore, you are lesser than I am.” People spoke out against Christian prejudice toward women, racial minorities, and anyone who does not self- identify as a committed heterosexual. A man in Austin summed up what many thought: “The Christian church has consistently been on the wrong side of history in terms of things like civil rights.”THE ORIGIN OF EQUALITYThe idea of equality did not pop into existence like a cartoon thought bubble. History shows where equality as a value and way of life did or did not emerge. And a pair of surprising forces have been no friends of equality. World religions did not come up with the idea of equal rights. Nor did it originate in a secular, non-religious outlook.No major faith apart from Christianity mandates a deep commitment to the equality of all people. In every other religion certain individuals and classes rank higher than others on a ladder of spiritual attainment. They are more enlightened, more holy, further along in paying their karmic debt, closer to the divine by virtue of their good works, and so on. And the result can be horrific inequities. In Hindu culture, for example, the caste system made untold masses unequal and untouchable. In Muslim culture, sharia law gives women and outsiders nothing resembling the rights and privileges of the male faithful. Eric Metaxas, author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, sums it up this way in an email interview I conducted with him for this project:In India, the concept of caste is a perfect example of how some cultures today believe and act upon the belief that some human beings are inherently better than other human beings. In many Muslim countries today, a Jew or Christian is viewed as subhuman, and they are routinely called “monkeys and pigs” and thought to be fit for extermination or slavery.Subjection breeds ignorance and pain. When you ask yourself, “Do the religions of the world contribute to equality?” the honest answer is no.The idea of equality of all people likewise did not originate in a non- religious belief system. The foundation of a dominant secular worldview— evolution—leads to the conclusion that some are more fit than others. Some deserve to be winners, and losers deserve to die. And by placing animals and human beings on a continuum of development, evolution has given rise to racist views that some individuals, peoples, and races are more advanced than others. In our debate on ABC Nightline, Deepak Chopra, for example, referred to me and some other people as “primitive.” Charles Darwin himself wrote, “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised [sic] races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.”1Taken to its logical end, an unadulterated evolutionary view of humanity cannot lead to equality.Those who say Christians are haters and bigots are on the wrong side of the facts because the concept of equality, as generally understood today— though sometimes misappropriated—actually originated and advanced in Christianity. Human religions and philosophies have never seen equality as an idea worth espousing, but the equality of all people has been essential to our faith since the very beginning. The Bible teaches that everyone equally bears the image and likeness of God in creation (Gen. 1:26–28). As a result, we share an equal dignity as uniquely created beings. We have equally fallen into sin (Rom. 3:23). And we are equally forgiven and saved by Jesus Christ when we come to Him in faith (Rom. 3:21–25).Nancy Pearcey, “Sexual Identity in a Secular Age.”Ibid.Ibid.

My friend never anticipated the question that erupted from the back seat on a drive home from school. “Mom,” her young daughter asked, “how come we don’t believe in equality?”The girl’s teacher had been saying that lots of people love each other and can marry and no one has the right to judge them. Over and over the teacher threw around the word equality to describe same-sex marriage adding that anyone who disagreed was unloving. This perspective was embedded in the curriculum my friend’s daughter was to learn and affirm, which to this Christian single mom felt more like indoctrination than education.The conversation in the car that particular day was triggered by a bumper sticker in the next lane that said, “I believe in marriage equality,” a popular slogan where I live. It sends an unsubtle message that opponents of same-sex marriage are in fact advocates of inequality.FEEDBACKAcross our phone surveys and focus groups we often heard that Christianity is “unprogressive” and even “repressive.” Instead of supporting the ideals of the future it defends prejudices of the past. Nearly a third (29%) of our survey participants agreed that Christians don’t believe all people are created equal. They perceive this bias as both a historical pattern and a present reality. One man explained, “Since its very conception, people have never been equal in Christianity according to the way it’s been preached. It’s never been about equality. It’s community versus community. To put it in broad terms, the haves and have nots. You don’t belong to my community; therefore, you are lesser than I am.” People spoke out against Christian prejudice toward women, racial minorities, and anyone who does not self- identify as a committed heterosexual. A man in Austin summed up what many thought: “The Christian church has consistently been on the wrong side of history in terms of things like civil rights.”THE ORIGIN OF EQUALITYThe idea of equality did not pop into existence like a cartoon thought bubble. History shows where equality as a value and way of life did or did not emerge. And a pair of surprising forces have been no friends of equality. World religions did not come up with the idea of equal rights. Nor did it originate in a secular, non-religious outlook.No major faith apart from Christianity mandates a deep commitment to the equality of all people. In every other religion certain individuals and classes rank higher than others on a ladder of spiritual attainment. They are more enlightened, more holy, further along in paying their karmic debt, closer to the divine by virtue of their good works, and so on. And the result can be horrific inequities. In Hindu culture, for example, the caste system made untold masses unequal and untouchable. In Muslim culture, sharia law gives women and outsiders nothing resembling the rights and privileges of the male faithful. Eric Metaxas, author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, sums it up this way in an email interview I conducted with him for this project:In India, the concept of caste is a perfect example of how some cultures today believe and act upon the belief that some human beings are inherently better than other human beings. In many Muslim countries today, a Jew or Christian is viewed as subhuman, and they are routinely called “monkeys and pigs” and thought to be fit for extermination or slavery.Subjection breeds ignorance and pain. When you ask yourself, “Do the religions of the world contribute to equality?” the honest answer is no.The idea of equality of all people likewise did not originate in a non- religious belief system. The foundation of a dominant secular worldview— evolution—leads to the conclusion that some are more fit than others. Some deserve to be winners, and losers deserve to die. And by placing animals and human beings on a continuum of development, evolution has given rise to racist views that some individuals, peoples, and races are more advanced than others. In our debate on ABC Nightline, Deepak Chopra, for example, referred to me and some other people as “primitive.” Charles Darwin himself wrote, “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised [sic] races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.”1Taken to its logical end, an unadulterated evolutionary view of humanity cannot lead to equality.Those who say Christians are haters and bigots are on the wrong side of the facts because the concept of equality, as generally understood today— though sometimes misappropriated—actually originated and advanced in Christianity. Human religions and philosophies have never seen equality as an idea worth espousing, but the equality of all people has been essential to our faith since the very beginning. The Bible teaches that everyone equally bears the image and likeness of God in creation (Gen. 1:26–28). As a result, we share an equal dignity as uniquely created beings. We have equally fallen into sin (Rom. 3:23). And we are equally forgiven and saved by Jesus Christ when we come to Him in faith (Rom. 3:21–25).1.Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871), Volume I, Chapter VI: “On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man,” 200–201.