No More Ms. Nice Guy: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Do O'Donnell and Coulter Signal the Demise of Tolerance and Respect?
 
I predicted Rosie O'Donnell's recent outburst on The View.
 
To a table full of fellow authors and speakers gathered for the International Christian Retail Show in Denver this past July I said, "I think we're about to see a step change in the level of outright hostility toward Christians. I think even the pretense of tolerance will give way to mainstream mocking and attack with an intensity we've not previously seen."
 
Two months later we were watching Rosie reruns on the nightly news declaring that, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam."
 
I am not a prophetess. I was just doing my homework. Together with Rick Davis, I co-host a talk radio program in the Houston and Dallas areas, The Things That Matter Most, where we invite people of diverse spiritual views to talk about what they believe and why they believe it. Scouting for possible interviews I had run across Sam Harris's book, The End of Faith.
 
Simply put Harris's argument is this:

• Christian and Muslim believers cling irrationally to mythic stories of a heaven ultimately more desirable than their own everyday worlds.
• If people do not value this world, then, at the risk of their own lives, they may be incited to acts of violence in the defense of their preposterous dogma.
• Therefore, religion is a form of terrorism and should be dealt with as such.
• Our postmodern commitment to tolerance should be abandoned and a concerted effort made to marginalize these deluded and intellectually dishonest people from the mainstream of American life.

No more Mr. or Ms. Nice Guy.
 
The thing that convinced me that Harris's searing attack on Christians was an omen of things to come was not so much the content of the tirade itself, but the fact that it was a New York Times bestseller. Just as the thing that cut most deeply about O'Donnell's remarks was not what she said, but how the audience burst into hearty applause.
 
British evolutionist Richard Dawkins has been saying this stuff for years, but mostly to the ivory tower crowd, and mostly in defense of a purely naturalistic theory of origins that, even after dominating American classrooms for more than fifty years, over 85% of Americans still reject.
 
But Harris has loaded the visceral threat of 9/11 into the barrel of his best-selling gun and locked his aim not just on people who disbelieve evolution, but everyone who names the name of the Lord Jesus. And his message is gaining traction. (Applause line for The View audience.)
 
How should we respond? Well, evidently a number of us have already given Harris our two cents worth. In his hot-off-the-press follow-up to the End of Faith, he has written:
 
"Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse."
 
I recommend you read his Letter to a Christian Nation. After all, it's addressed to us. As its message ripples out to Rosie and our co-workers, we should be prepared to give a response for the hope within us. If you would like to listen to Harris' message from his own lips, you can stream or download our interview with him at  www.thethingsthatmattermost.org (select "Listen to shows"). 
 
Tuning in to what Harris is saying packs another benefit. It is good to be on the receiving end of mocking, scathing criticism. It gives us empathy for how others feel when they read mocking, scathing attacks from people who profess faith in our Lord and our beliefs.  Imagine how skeptics and "liberals" feel reading these words from Ann Coulter's newest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism:
 
"I don't particularly care if liberals believe in God.  In fact, I would be crestfallen to discover any liberals in heaven." "Environmentalists' energy plan is the repudiation of American and Christian destiny, which is Jet Skis, steak on the electric grill, hot showers, and night skiing.""I have never seen people (the 9/11 widows) enjoying their husbands' death so much."
 
Ann Coulter gets good ratings for splashing this around news chat shows and bookstores, but should Christians give her the honor of being a voice for our community on important issues? I watched her in a leading narrative role in Dr. James Kennedy's August 26th Coral Ridge Hour documentary, "<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Darwin's Dangerous Legacy," where she spoke at length from Godless. As I watched this respected Christian leader sharing his platform with her I couldn't help thinking, "Dr. Kennedy, why Ann?"
 
My concern is that in today's quest to be heard above the hubbub in the cocktail party of the national media too many people think we have to get the equivalent of drunk and boorish.  We have to act in a way especially unbecoming for a woman, the crowning glory of God's creation. Voices like Rosie espouse an end to tolerance. Leaders like Ann exemplify disrespect.
 
As followers of Jesus listening to the rising cacophony of uncivil discourse it is good to ask ourselves, Are we justified in the tone and content of our attacks against people outside the faith? Is there any New Testament precedent for Sam Harris's hate mail or Ann Coulter's mockery? Is there any evidence of Jesus mocking skeptics and "godless liberals"?
 
Now, we read plenty of strong, confrontational language from Jesus directed at the Pharisees. And we should study the tone and content of how he communicates with them. But there is a big distinction between how Jesus responded to presumptuous "insiders" and unbelieving outsiders.
 
How did Jesus respond to skeptics and political opponents? Did he care if they believed in God or not?
 
In Luke 14 the Pharisees tell Jesus that Harod wants to kill him. Jesus's response  gives us a good model, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.'"
 
What do we expect from Jesus? Something pious and wobbly? Not from the most brilliant communicator that ever lived. We see name calling and even satire. Yet without a dent in anyone's dignity.  He calls Herod a "fox" but, I'm thinking a guy like Herod would probably take that as a complement. We see barbed satire--"Heaven forbid that a prophet should die outside Jerusalem"-but without personal attack at the point of someone's grief, weakness or loss. In fact, with his next breath it is Jesus who grieves over the Pharisees, "O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets…How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"
 
Here is the secret of Jesus respect for even his enemies: He desperately loves them.
 
There is no arrogant presumption of who Jesus wants to see in heaven; on the contrary anyone who is thirsty is invited to drink the "water of life without price." There is a tone of authority. Even defiance of Herod. "Herod wants to kill me? Well he knows where to find me."
 
Jesus could speak as king of the universe. But we Christians, especially when we speak to outsiders in today's postmodern environment, rely on Jesus' moral authority, and we should keep our satire and name calling shrewdly and respectfully in line with his. Or perhaps, as he did in Herod's actual presence, hold our tongues. We may often get more of a hearing when we speak with the voice of a fellow traveler in need of grace and forgiveness.
 
When we prepare to submit a rebuke or an appeal we should ask God's Spirit to check our hearts: is our motive a deep love for God and others? We should ask him to tenderize our consciences to speak that which is shrewd, yet respectful "so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."
 
When we read Harris's attacks against Christians, can we point to the "good behavior in Christ" of the people who have written him letters so that he will be ashamed of his attacks? We might want to examine the letters personally, but judging from our interview with Harris's there might be grounds to put the Christian hate mailers to shame. And by association the Lord Jesus looks bad.
 
What would films, TV, radio and the web-what would our national and community life look like if Christians imitated the shrewdness, dignity and respect of Jesus and only lined up behind leaders who did the same? And when Christians are attacked by the Sam Harrises and Rosie O'Donnells of this world, what if audiences would think about the good behavior of the Christians they know personally and Christian leaders they hear in the media, and respond not with applause, but embarrassed and shaming silence?