Did we really just arrive back at the beginning? I’ll argue no. Things just aren’t always what they seem at our first, or even second, glance. I felt I had to take the time to mine some key points deeply, giving adequate credit to the importance of the original questions. It is of no use jumping to a quick yes or no. The thoughtful person expects complexities in most things. To believe otherwise is only to court discouragement as the quick proves unreliable in the light of day.

So, now that I’ve spent all of this time defining terms, identifying fundamental principles and so forth, let’s get back at it and I’ll try to respond to the author’s main theme.

Let’s take the first question: What evidence is there that Christianity works?

Anecdotal Evidence

Ok, for starters, why don’t we ask actual Christians, “does Christianity work?” I may be mistaken but I sense that the author’s question is more of a general thing in that he’s pretty much made the assumption that it doesn’t work because the world is in such bad shape, despite the large segment of humanity that professes Christianity.

But it’s not fair to ignore some actual data we might gather from the testimonies of a random sampling of the 2.2 billion self-identifying Christians (about one third of we 7 billion humans).

Honestly, although I’d studied all of the major religions and had come into contact with people who practiced most of them, I had never actually asked that question of someone until I was over 50 years old. I guess I could have sort of discerned in a passive sense that if one believed strongly in a thing, that it “worked” for them. But, we’ve gone beyond that in this series.

Of course, now I have these conversations all of the time, especially when we get down in the weeds to try to match our beliefs with desired outcomes.

So, I’ll say right off the bat, “Heck yes, it works! Are you serious? It’s changed my life for good and in a remarkably positive way. And, I’m not the only one who thinks so. People who have known me for awhile and are around me a lot say I’m definitely more patient, less self-righteous, kinder, more forgiving and less given to anger … in short, more loving. Now, granted, I’ve a long, long way to go but if following Jesus is the cause, then of course it’s working.”

I’m not alone. I see and hear this story constantly. Committed followers of Jesus recognizing their sincere limitations and seeking to grow more deeply in love, testifying that it’s often a case of two steps forward, one step back, but you can’t miss the progress over time.

I hearken back to the Tim Keller piece I shared the other day. He began by questioning which Christians we’re talking about, ultimately stating the obvious that you can’t paint all with the same brush stroke. Yes, that might be convenient as a way of stereotyping but it’s not compelling. If our exposure to Christianity is the popular press in an increasingly secularized age, then the story that gets the most attention is frequently the one detailing something sensational or corrupt.

Instead, go into random churches all across this country and around the world and you will see millions upon millions of people who treat strangers kindly, give a significant amount of their wealth away to the needy, work in shelters and to build low cost homes, support orphanages, hospitals, schools and impoverished children everywhere. Which group of people chooses to go into maximum security prisons on a regular basis to help lift our most disenfranchised people out of a cycle of violence and hate? Where are twelve step programs commonly held? Which organizations regularly sponsor grief groups? Which organizations regularly send their members out to tutor immigrants in language and life skills? The list is nearly endless. And, Christians regularly travel to the most desolate portions of the world, at their own expense, to do these things. Yes, of course, non Christians do this too but let’s apply the same standard of “performance” to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Atheists. In the cultures and communities where those other beliefs are present or dominant, are the percentages the same? Are they structuring their weekly lives around living this way? I do not have figures but I believe I’ve studied cultures enough to make an educated guess.

Hope

Let’s not sideline the value of hope here, either. It is easy to succumb to the common criticisms leveled by skeptics and atheists that Christian hope is irrational, tantamount to the five year old hoping the tooth fairy or Santa would arrive that night. I have written on the topic before so will not engage it at length here. But it can’t be dismissed lightly if we want to answer whether Christianity works. Hope is a regular feature of life, regardless of belief system. Everyone hopes, whether broadly or at the granular level. Everyone factors in hope to the way we live out our lives. Hope expands our world while its opposite, despondency, shrinks it. By definition, the Christian is hopeful, as in “filled with hope.” This is based upon a conviction that the promise is real and that conviction is arrived at through both reason and experience. For one who does not reason or experience in such a way, this hope probably makes no sense, hence the criticism. But, spend any time with a committed follower of Jesus, who understands the gospel and I trust you will find out more why hope is a reason Christianity works. Finally, do people who are truly filled with hope bring out the “good” things in life as opposed to people who are cynical and, worse, despondent? I’ll leave that unanswered for now.

A Further Word About Evidence

We’ve been doing a whole lot of diving into the weeds about what Christianity stands for, some of the common criticisms of Christians and some of the anecdotal evidence of how Christianity works for those who lead a gospel-centered life.

But, I expect this is not enough. The author says he “just doesn’t see” that Christianity is better at creating good than had it never existed.

Respectfully, I have two problems with this.

First, just because the author doesn’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. This was the first point Keller made in my earlier piece. I have deep respect for the author’s intellect and ability to analyze data. However, in this case, I know that he has had comparatively little actual first hand exposure to a lot of practicing Christians, saving a few friends, but with whom he has had very little dialogue about their actual faith lives. He has not been a part of a Christian community where the exposure would be much greater and he could compare their stories with the stories of others on what their priorities are, the vision for their lives and how they seek to interact with others around them and in far away communities. To omit this evidence is to prejudice the outcome and unfairly tilt the scales, in my analysis. Spend a year living amidst people who try to live out 1 Corinthians 13 and see if the view begins to shift.

Second, when examining either the historical record or the current world, it assumes a great deal to “condemn” a faith to irrelevancy (or worse) without gathering all of the evidence and this is very hard. There is nothing simple about it, so not “seeing” it is, perhaps, another way of saying, “I haven’t investigated it enough.”

Slavery

It’s common to hear the refrain that Christians promoted slavery for several hundred years in the western world, that it was Christian societies that stole humans from Africa and enslaved them to the harshest lives in the New World. And that the slave-dependent economies of Caribbean and southern American states were directed by Christians for their economic gain. This is a horrible blight with no justifiable defense. There are, however, at least two pieces of evidence that we need to examine. First, slavery has been a common feature of nearly every civilization throughout history. It was fully integrated into the indigenous societies in Africa as well as in North and South America. It was common in the Near East, the Far East, the Middle East and the West, including Scandinavia and throughout the EuroAsian continent. In fact, the first major attempt to eradicate slavery around the world was led by Christians, who saw it as a horrible abomination against God’s created order. Later, the major Civil Rights leaders were largely Christian, who carried on the Abolitionist crusade for equal rights. It does little good to dismiss these apparent contradictions lightly. It is healthy to ask how such contradictions could exist but if we jump to the conclusion that God is at fault or that he cannot be both loving and all powerful without exploring why those contradictions exist, we are shortchanging the whole issue.

Western Laws and Moral Codes

Let’s look briefly at the system of laws that have governed the western world for hundreds of years now and are now the basis of many political and economic systems around the world.

These laws came out of a set of moral principles that established fundamental rights for everyone and are extremely connected with the Judeo-Christian traditions. As a refutation of traditional authoritarian systems, they collectively reflect the belief that all of us have “unalienable” rights. These rights are not the result of evolution, nor are they the result of any other of the world’s major belief systems. They are closely linked to the importance of freedom and dignity for all people and of caring for those who are needy. The now modern concept of Justice, as set apart from a code that says “the strongest man gets to do what he wants,” or “the most powerful tribe or majority can have its way with everyone else,” was an invention grounded in the nature of God and had fidelity to the Christian worldview. I could go into great detail how our Constitution is deeply reflective of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Isn’t that firm evidence of the “good” that has come from Christianity? The critic will be inclined to immediately object and point out all of the faults but the fault does not lie with guiding principles.

* * * * *

What have we learned so far, hopefully?

For starters, it’s not so easy to define whether something like a belief system, specifically here, Christianity, works. If the metric in only such a subjective thing as “doing good,” then we still have a lot to work out before we can answer it. But, if it’s about aligning ourselves with the guiding principles I’ve labored to present, then that complicates things even further.

I can’t say conclusively I could predict the outcome of an objective 1 Corinthians 13 test on a random large sampling of people, even if such a highly subjective test were possible. But, of course, that’s the kind of thing we’d have to do, wouldn’t we? Because that’s Christianity.

Furthermore, the results are mixed and often dependent upon the observer’s perspective and sources of data. This dependency also includes the observer’s preconceptions with respect to the purpose of Christianity. To be blunt, if Observer A thinks Christianity is fundamentally a program for social justice, then he or she will use that lens by which to judge the belief system’s impact. If Observer B thinks Christianity is fundamentally a program for saving souls so they can go to heaven, then he or she will use that lens by which to judge the belief system’s impact. If Observer C thinks Christianity is a myth perpetuated by the powerful to oppress the weak, then he or she will use that lens. And so forth.

I will hopefully wrap this up in the next segment.