is there Christian bashing?

Have you thought why it is that some people are so opposed to the Christian faith? They will do anything to try to prove it wrong, or discredit it?

It is actually hard to do this. Whenever you want to speak of bad things happening in the name of Jesus, you generally have to go to the past, mainly the distant past to see how people who called themselves Christian did particularly bad things.

It's always the same stories: the Crusades, 1000 years ago, Spanish Inquisition, 500 years ago and so on.

In the present, it seems the only time people can logically criticize Christians is when they exhibit boorish behavior. There is plenty of that. Then again, that is a human thing, isn’t it? There is no scripture that says, “Thou shalt be a pain in the keester.”

O, therer are still some who are upset at Christians if they say the Bible says homosexual relationships are unhealthy or abortion is wrong. But these are being used way more as political capital than as moral deliberation. The Bible is pretty clear on these issues, so any debate is as much about specifics of the Bible being a defining document for you or not. Even if the Bible doesn’t have authority for you, there are some strong secular arguments concerning issues like abortion and whether homosexual relationships are generally healthy or not.

Now contrast all of this to Islam, for example. Unlike what happens all the time concerning the Bible and Jesus, I haven’t seen any “documentaries” on Discovery Channel trying to dispute the Koran or questioning the historical evidence of Mohammed. There have been no covers on Time Magazine or Newsweek questioning the truths of Islam. Yet, this happens all the time when it comes to the Bible and Jesus.

You will hear the common themes: the Bible isn’t accurate, there are all these lost books that are being found contradicting the Bible, and Jesus isn’t really God. We completely and utterly refuted all of these points and more the last three weeks in a course available in podcast, Cracking the Da Vinci Code.

Also, when you compare Christianity to Islam, you don't have to go back in the past to find people sullying the good teachings of Islam and doing bad things in the name of Allah.

Every week someone somewhere is getting his head cut off or people are being blown up. There are about 20 major conflicts going in the world today and almost everyone of them has people involved doing bad things in the name of Allah. This is not Islam. Islam does not advocate such behavior. This is way more a political grasp for power. But whatever the real reasons, people are sabotaging the beauty of Islam by claiming they are fighting for Allah.

So, why is it that the Christian faith is so often attacked? Not Islam. Not Buddhism. Not Hinduism. Certainly not materialism, probably the world’s most dangerous “religion.” What’s with the Christian bashing? Or am I exaggerating?

More tomorrow.