A Christian Who Gets It

At the Christian Post there's an article called "How Not to Fight Atheism." The author, R. Albert Mohler Jr. is writing in reaction to the controversy caused by a recent atheist bus ad campaign in Fort Worth, Texas. To recap, a local secular group ran bus ads with the slogan, "Millions of Americans are Good Without God." Naturally that was far too much for the easily offended religious, and a Christian group responded with both a bus boycott and complaints to municipal government. The end result?

The Fort Worth Transportation Authority voted December 15 to ban all religious ads on buses. The policy took effect January 1, 2011. According to press reports, “both sides cheered the decision.”

Mohler points out that by silencing an atheist message, Christians cut off their own noses to spite their faces, and also managed to silence their own religious messages.

Christians are sometimes our own worst enemy, especially when we claim to be offended. Those pastors and concerned Christians who demanded that the transportation authority ban the atheist ads actually gave the secularists the Grand Prize. By precipitating (and, of all things, celebrating) a ban on all religious messages from this public space, these Christians surrendered Gospel opportunities simply because they were offended by an atheist advertisement.

And he asks a great question,

Are Christians so insecure that we fear a weakly-worded advertisement on a public bus?

Yes, as a matter of fact many of them are. It's also good to see a Christian declare that Christians don't have a right not to be offended.

Being a Christian does not mean never having to be offended.

Would that there were more Christians (and members of other religions) with this writer's attitude and sense.