Apologetics and idiot drivers
There's a story behind the latest op-ed piece on Paris Hilton I did for The Daily Telegraph.
I emailed Justin at the Tele and asked if he wanted a piece on Mohammed Haneef, the cousin of the man involved in the failed Glasgow bombing attempt. Haneef was arrested last month under our new terrorism laws and interrogated for nearly two weeks before being released and deported without being charged.
Justin's reply said, “Thanks for the offer, but our readers aren't that interested and I wouldn't want you to waste your time. But you could do something on Paris Hilton or idiot drivers.” Hence the Paris Hilton piece.
Now I am a great fan of apologetics, and I see my writing for the paper in this category (‘apologetics’ here defined as using arguments to defend a Christian world view or attack a non-christian world view, with the ultimate intention of winning a better hearing for the gospel). In fact, I've just finished a four-week session with a group from 5:00 pm church at St Paul's Carlingford on just this subject. (Thanks Chris F and Tracy G for the help!)
But this email exchange with Justin was a good reminder of what I already believe—which is that apologetics is always going to be a handmaiden to evangelism. That is, it should take second place to telling people the gospel. There are a huge number of people out there who just don't have a great interest in the outside world—or at least not the sort of things that Christian apologists sometimes feel they ought to be interested in. To destroy a person's unsustainable and damaging world view by clever and intelligent argument is a good thing to attempt. But there will be a good proportion of the population who will rise from the ashes to say “Right ... so who do you reckon will win the game on Saturday?”
In Romans 1:16, Paul insists “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” [emphasis mine]. There is a lot to be said for cutting straight to the chase and just telling people the simple, unadorned news that, through Christ Jesus' death and resurrection, the full forgiveness of sin is available to those who repent and trust him as Lord. If Justin at the Tele was a Christian, he would tell you that's pretty much what the readers need to hear (not to mention the rest of us).