Category Archives: Truth Matters

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Textbook Example of False Tolerance: Are Mormons Christians?

Mormonism could be true. Now as a Christian, I don’t think there is good evidence that it is true but religions make truth claims and those claims are either true or false. Our culture is having a spirited conversation right now about the nature of Christianity, Mormonism, and religious discourse in general. Is religion merely a private thing that no one can critique, criticize, or investigate? Or is religion both personal and public?

I have blogged on the issue of tolerance before, but this is a textbook example of “false tolerance” where we can make no judgments at all about the truth of others’ beliefs. People are throwing around words like “bigot” and “hate speech.” But as Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University argues, “the ideal of religious tolerance has morphed into the straitjacket of religious agreement.” That is an astute observation. He goes on to say in his provocative book God is Not One:

“No one argues that different economic systems or political regimes are one and the same. Capitalism and socialism are so obviously at odds that their differences hardly bear mentioning. The same goes for democracy and monarchy. Yet scholars continue to claim that religious rivals such as Hinduism and Islam, Judaism and Christianity are, by some miracle of the imagination, essentially the same, and this view resounds in the echo chamber of popular culture.”

Mormonism is not the same thing as Christianity. This shouldn’t be a controversial claim. Biblical Christianity teaches that Jesus is the eternal creator of the universe (e.g. Col. 1:16) and is part of the Godhead (i.e., the Trinity cf. Matt. 28:19). Mormonism teaches that Jesus was a created being and deny the Trinity. These are mutually exclusive claims (click here and here for more on the teachings of Mormonism). A civilized society needs to have the ability to talk about these difference without demonizing each other. We need to recover true tolerance, where we allow others the freedom to hold beliefs which we judge to be false. As everyday ambassadors, Christians need be able to intelligently engage the questions our culture is asking and discussing. But we must learn how to do this well and then have the confidence to enter the cultural conversation.

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The Barna Group Releases Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church

These are fleshed out in the new book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman. Here is one of the six reasons:

Reason #5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
“Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority. Most young adults want to find areas of common ground with each other, sometimes even if that means glossing over real differences. Three out of ten young Christians (29%) said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths” and an identical proportion felt they are “forced to choose between my faith and my friends.” One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).”

You can find the other 5 reasons here.
We need to do a better job of talking about truth in our churches. It is not enough to say that this is the right and answer and leave it at that. As Christian leaders we need to model the process of how to arrive at truth. What are the reasons we hold our views? Why are the slogans and soundbites like “that may be true for you but not for me” mistaken? Narrate the difference between false tolerance and true tolerance. We can no longer assume people (even Christians) accept the Bible as an authority; they don’t. In our feeling culture, we need to recover the ability to think well–dare I say Think Christianly–about the biggest questions in life. I offer some analysis and suggestions here.
I am grateful for the work of the Barna Group and David Kinnaman for helping clarify the assumptions and questions of this generation. Learn more here.

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Religion And Science Can Coexist, Scientists Say In New Survey…Should We Be Surprised?

Are science and faith really in conflict? Huffington Post writer Jaweed Kaleem has posted an interesting article discussing a new survey that has been released on how scientists view religion. Here’s a portion of the article:

“A majority of scientists say religion and science don’t always conflict, according to new survey results released by Rice University.

The study, conducted over five years through in-depth interviews with scientists at universities whose fields range from biology and chemistry to social sciences like political science and economics, dispels the widely held notion that religion and science are incompatible.

“When it comes to questions about the meaning of life, ways of understanding reality, origins of Earth and how life developed on it, many have seenreligion and science as being at odds and even in irreconcilable conflict,” said Rice sociologist Elaine Ecklund. Yet, a majority of the scientists Ecklund and her colleagues interviewed saw both religion and science as “valid avenues of knowledge” she said.

Ecklund and her team interviewed 275 tenured and tenure-track faculty members from 21 research universities in the United States. Only 15 percent of respondents said religion and science were always in conflict, while 15 percent said the two were never in conflict. The majority, 70 percent, said religion and science are only sometimes in conflict….(read the rest)

Science is not the issue; worldviews and philosophies are the issue. Everybody works with the same facts. What makes all the difference is which interpretations are allowed to compete (in principle), what counts as knowledge (only scientism?), and which worldview best explains all the relevant data. (Notice again that these are all philosophical questions and not scientific ones.)

As Sean McDowell and I point out in our book, Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists, Naturalism is a scientifically oriented worldview that denies the existence of God and the soul. Richard Dawkins put it this way: “An atheist in this sense of philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking be- hind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles—except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don’t understand yet.”

Theism holds that there is a personal creator and sustainer of the universe who is omnipotent, omniscient, essentially good, omnipresent, and eternal. Christianity believes that the Creator has revealed himself to humankind in the person of Jesus Christ, a member of the Trinity, who was resurrected from the dead in confirmation of his deity. Thus, Christians believe in the supernatural world, including God, the soul, angels, and miracles.

There is no inherent conflict between Christianity and science. Defining these two worldviews shows us the root problem: naturalism and theism are at odds, not science and Christianity. Naturalism is intrinsically atheistic because it sees nothing outside the natural or material world. Here is what’s interesting about the foundational beliefs of naturalists: naturalists place enormous trust in nature’s order and their powers of reason, but their worldview ultimately undermines any basis for such confidence. Science is only possible if the world is ordered and if we can trust our senses and reason.

You can learn more about the history of the relationship between science and Christianity by reading The Soul of Science.

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The God Quest DVD Curriculum by Sean McDowell

I am excited to tell you about (and endorse!) a new DVD curriculum for youth by author, apologist, and teacher Sean McDowell. Having had the pleasure of co-writing a book with Sean defending the existence of the Christian God, I know his heart is to reach this generation with the good news of Jesus Christ. And this top notch, accesible video study will be a great tool for youth pastors and parents to use to engage today’s students. Sean invites students on a God Quest and offers six signposts (six 15 minute sessions) that point down a path where if a person is seeking God…they will find him. The message of the God Quest is intellectually satisfying and emotionally compelling. It answers the biggest questions in life. The kit is affordable and comes with a well designed guide that students can use during the week as they explore these critical questions. I hope you will consider taking your students on a God Quest!

To find out more about the God Quest and to purchase a copy for your church, click here. “Like” the God Quest Facebook page and share it with others here.
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Why college students leave church – @washingtonpost @stickyfaith

Last friday I was interviewed for an article by Piet Levy that ran in the Washington Post. We had a great conversation about this important topic and I was grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts. Students walking away from their faith was a big reason that I wrote Welcome to College: A Christ-follower’s Guide for the Journey and it also prompted Sean McDowell and I to write Is God Just a Human Invention? to deal with the toughest intellectual objections to the Christian faith raised by the New Atheists. We must do a better job equipping the next generation so that they are prepared for the opportunities and challenges of college life and beyond.

“Millions of college freshmen are overwhelmed right now trying to make new friends, adjusting to more rigorous school work and learning to live away from home. Whether they also find time for church during their first two weeks on campus will set the mold for the rest of their college years, according to new research.

These findings come from a six-year study of approximately 500 Christian youth group members, conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Youth Institute in Pasadena, Calif.

The study’s results will be released Sept. 17 in “Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids.” The book examines why, according to a 2006 report by Christian research firm Barna Group, 61 percent of 20-somethings who regularly attended church as teenagers later left the pews….” (Read the rest of this article)

In my forthcoming book Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (October with Zondervan) I offer suggestions as to what we can do to reverse this trend among students and help them cultivate a mature faith. One thing we must do is help students realize that Christianity actually rises to the level of being of true or false. It is capable of being rationally investigated and defended (1 Pet. 3:15 cf. Jude 3).
To read more on the new research this article is based, see Sticky Faith by Kara Powell and Chap Clark:

When all is said and done, may we be like the Psalmist who prayed, “O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare Your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:17-18). That’s as missional as it gets.