On Apologetics (Part 5)

Picking on up a comment by Bill Maher on HarvestBoston: I saw the interview where Maher made this comment and it struck me as accurate and important. Not that it is anything new, but its challenge is still unanswerable by The Church as a whole.

Here is what Maher said:

One thing I don’t like about religion is — and ask any of the truly devout — it’s not mainly about doing the right thing or being ethical, it’s mainly about salvation. It’s mainly about getting your butt saved when you die. And that’s why I think they’re less moral than atheists.

This is why ethics, apologetics and evangelism are linked. It is also perhaps THE major reason why most people cite they will not step foot into the structures of traditional churches. This is our challenge. Change this perception of The Church–or die as The Church.

This gets right to the virtues. If a church does not love the virtues, then it is all about salvation–or the punch and coffee, but not much else. If you and your church are not concentrating on doing good–then you aren’t. Leaders of the emerging church take heed, unless you end up being the next generation’s excuse to dismiss faith in Jesus Christ out of hand. (I’ll take my own warning here).

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If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy my previous post called On Apologetics (Part 4)

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Tags: apologetics, atheism, Bill Maher, Christianity, emergent church, emerging church, Ethics, Evangelical, evangelism, harvestboston, new atheists, Organic Church, Philosophy, religion, salvation, the church, The Virtues, Theology, virtue