It’s amazing how unimaginative non-believers are. They repeat the same, tired accusations over and over. Their minds are so paralyzed with ignorance, hate, or both, that they aren’t aware of how boring they’ve become.
One oft-repeated sillyism: “People are being murdered by intolerant Christians.”
“Where?”, we may ask.
“Well, uh, they used to murder millions and millions of people.
“In the 1900s?”, we wonder.
“Well, before that.”
“In the 1800s?”
“Whenever the Crusades were.”
“Do you mean the Moslem invaders who kidnapped and sold Christians into slavery?”
“No, I mean the Christian crusaders. They killed millions and millions of people.”
“Is there any proof that more than two or three hundred thousand were killed over several generations?”
“I don’t know. Christians killed a lot of people. We studied it in school.”
When we have identified the source of such misinformation, we may want to ask:
“How many people have been killed by abortionists? How many have been killed by environmentalists who took away DDT so people died from malaria? Did Christians do that?”
As such conversations progress, we find that they do not want to hear truth, so rather than barraging them with facts, and driving them deeper into the domicile of lies, we may want to gently ask,
“Why would Jesus tell people to love their neighbor and do good to them that hurt you?”
Suddenly, you may find that the person will respond: “Didn’t he say to ‘sell your cloak and buy a sword’?” That doesn’t sound like doing good to them that hurt you.”
Say that you are thankful for finding a literate liberal. They are few and far between. We may suggest, “Read the rest of the passage. Out of all the people present, there were two swords. ‘That’s all you need.’ He said, clearly thinking of the right of self-defense.”
We may want to remind them, “And, when one of His followers did use a sword to cut off an attacker’s ear, Jesus healed the ear and told him to put the sword away.”
One thing is certain: they cannot be browbeaten into belief with facts. They can be attracted by love and respect for their very essence, which is a soul yet to know greater truth.
They also need two gifts of The Spirit, Wisdom and Courage. Many people are just plain too afraid to stand up for truth, so they compromise. Blaming Christianity is always the easy thing to do because Christians generally turn the other cheek.
