Confronting Christianity

1. Global secularization is a myth; religious faith promotes human flourishing.

If one could conceive of a single elixir to improve the physical and mental health of millions of Americans—at no personal cost—what value would our society place on it?

The secularization myth. For decades, sociologists predicted that modernization would inevitably cause the death of religion. However, global statistics show the opposite: the nonreligious population is actually shrinking as a percentage of humanity, while Christianity and Islam continue to grow rapidly.

A health miracle. Empirical research from institutions like Harvard reveals that regular religious participation acts like a "miracle drug." Churchgoers experience significantly lower rates of depression, suicide, and divorce, alongside increased optimism and a 20-30% reduction in mortality.

Psychological alignment. The core teachings of Jesus align perfectly with modern psychological findings on human thriving. The book highlights several key biblical principles that directly foster well-being:

• Generosity: Giving is scientifically proven to boost happiness more than receiving.
• Gratitude: Keeping a focus on thankfulness improves physical and mental health.
• Contentment: The psychological immune system allows humans to synthesize happiness in adversity.

2. Christianity is the most diverse, multiethnic movement in human history.

We must abandon this absurd idea that Christianity is a Western religion.

Demographic reality. Many Westerners falsely assume Christianity is a white, Eurocentric religion of privilege. In reality, the vast majority of the world's Christians live in the Global South and East, with women of color representing the single most religious demographic on earth.

Ancient global roots. Long before Christianity reached Britain or America, it flourished in Africa, India, and the Middle East. The New Testament itself showcases a multiethnic movement from day one, breaking down racial barriers and uniting diverse groups in radical, equal fellowship.

The pluralism paradox. Claiming all religions are merely different paths to the same truth patronizes believers and ignores their distinct historical claims. True respect means taking differences seriously rather than forcing them into a Western secular mold:

• The "elephant" parable falsely assumes the secular observer has a god-like view of the whole picture.
• Monotheistic faiths make mutually exclusive historical claims, particularly regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus.
• Christianity's unique claim is that God became a poor, marginalized human to save his enemies.

3. Universal human rights and equality are historically rooted in Christian theology.

The premise of human equality is not a self-evident truth: it is profoundly historically contingent.

Historical contingency. The modern belief that all human beings possess equal, inalienable worth is not a default human setting. Ancient Greek and Roman societies openly practiced infanticide, eugenics, and slavery, viewing some humans as inherently superior to others.

The Christian spark. Universal human rights emerged directly from the Christian revolution, which declared that every person is made in the image of God. This theological foundation elevated the weak, protected children, and demanded that masters treat their slaves as equal brothers.

Secularism's grounding problem. Without God, secular humanism struggles to find a logical foundation for human equality. If humans are merely accidental collections of atoms shaped by evolutionary survival, there is no scientific basis for protecting the weak:

• Atheist philosophers like Peter Singer admit that without God, a newborn baby has no more inherent value than a pig.
• Evolutionary biology explains how we compete, but cannot explain why we should care for the vulnerable.
• Christianity provides the only coherent framework where our deepest moral intuitions match the ultimate reality of the universe.

4. Secular ideologies have historically caused far more bloodshed than religion.

Of all religions, secular and otherwise, that of Marxism has been by far the bloodiest.

The violent dragon. Critics often point to the Crusades or the Inquisition to argue that religion is the primary cause of war and violence. While Christians have tragically failed to live up to Jesus's teachings, historical context reveals that these conflicts were often defensive or politically driven.

Secular atrocities. The twentieth century proved that removing religion does not usher in a golden age of peace. Officially atheist regimes, driven by Marxist and Communist ideologies, slaughtered over a hundred million people through purges, forced labor, and man-made famines.

The Nazi distortion. Nazism was not a Christian movement, but an anti-Christian regime that sought to replace Jesus with Adolf Hitler. The Nazis systematically mangled Christian theology, stripping the Bible of its Jewish roots and using social Darwinism to justify genocide:

• "Positive Christianity" was a state-enforced distortion that rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
• Brave Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the White Rose movement gave their lives resisting the regime.
• The cross of Christ stands as the ultimate subversion of violence, showing God suffering for his enemies.

5. The Bible is a sophisticated literary work, not a simplistic literalist manual.

The presence of such deliberate formal contradictions does not mean that the contradictory statements are not both true in some way at a deeper level.

Literary complexity. Skeptics and literalists alike often misunderstand the Bible by failing to recognize its diverse literary genres. The Scriptures contain poetry, parables, historical narratives, and metaphors, all of which must be read on their own terms to be understood.

Metaphorical truth. Jesus routinely used metaphors—calling himself a vine, a door, or a shepherd—to communicate profound spiritual realities. Taking these statements with wooden literalism misses the point, just as mistaking a love poem for a medical report does.

Eyewitness reliability. Despite minor differences in ordering and detail, the four Gospels are highly reliable historical documents. They contain embarrassing details about their leaders and rely on the testimony of women, which no first-century fabricator would have invented:

• The frequency of names in the Gospels perfectly matches first-century Palestinian demographics.
• The inclusion of specific, minor eyewitnesses allowed contemporary readers to verify the accounts.
• The physical resurrection of Jesus remains the most historically plausible explanation for the sudden rise of the early church.

6. Modern science was birthed by Christian theology, not in opposition to it.

Understanding more of science doesn’t make God smaller. It allows us to see His creative activity in more detail.

Theological foundations. The popular narrative of an inherent conflict between science and faith is a modern myth. Modern science was actually birthed in Christian Europe because believers expected a rational Creator to have designed an orderly, discoverable universe.

Pioneering believers. The giants of scientific history—including Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, and Boyle—were devout believers who viewed their research as an act of worship. Even the Big Bang theory was first proposed by a Roman Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître.

The limits of materialism. Science is an incredibly powerful tool for explaining how the physical world works, but it cannot explain why we exist. Many leading contemporary scientists at elite institutions like MIT and Harvard maintain a vibrant Christian faith:

• Science can describe the physical composition of a human, but cannot ground our moral value.
• The fine-tuning of the universe's physical constants strongly points to intentional design.
• The "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" suggests a deep connection between human minds and the cosmos.

7. Jesus radically elevated the status of women, and the Bible honors them.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Countercultural elevation. In a Greco-Roman culture where women were treated as property and subjected to forced marriages and high rates of infanticide, Jesus's ministry was revolutionary. He welcomed women as disciples, held them up as moral examples, and chose them as the first witnesses of his resurrection.

The marriage drama. The controversial biblical command for wives to submit to their husbands must be read in the context of the gospel. Husbands are commanded to love their wives sacrificially, putting their wives' needs first and laying down their lives for them, just as Christ did for the church.

Demographics of devotion. Far from being an oppressive tool of patriarchy, Christianity has always attracted a majority-female following. Today, women remain more religiously active than men globally, finding in Christ a source of ultimate dignity and worth:

• The early church was mocked by pagan critics for being dominated by women and slaves.
• Christianity protected women by outlawing female infanticide, polygamy, and unilateral divorce.
• The biblical metaphor of marriage points to the ultimate, non-exclusive intimacy of Christ and his church.

8. Biblical sexual ethics prioritize deep, non-sexual intimacy and holy boundaries.

Trust me, all of that was nothing compared to knowing Christ.

The boundary benefit. Modern Western culture views sexual freedom as the ultimate path to self-actualization, claiming we cannot live happily without sexual fulfillment. However, the Bible establishes clear boundaries around sex, reserving it exclusively for heterosexual marriage to protect its sacred meaning.

Intimacy of friendship. By restricting sex, the Bible actually opens up a massive space for deep, non-sexual intimacy. The New Testament commands Christians to love one another as "one body," elevating friendship and spiritual partnership to a level of closeness rarely experienced today.

The singleness honor. Jesus and the apostle Paul both modeled and championed singleness as a highly honored calling, proving that marriage is not required for a complete human life. The church must embody this by becoming a true family for the lonely:

• Cohabitation and multiple sexual partners are statistically linked to higher divorce rates and lower female happiness.
• Sexual orientation is often fluid, and our ultimate identity is found in Christ, not our desires.
• Human marriage is merely a temporary scale model pointing to our eternal union with God.

9. Scripture systematically subverted and dismantled the foundations of slavery.

My mistress had taught me the precepts of God’s Word... But I was her slave, and I suppose she did not recognize me as her neighbor.

Dismantling ownership. While the Bible did not immediately outlaw the ancient economic institution of slavery, its theological principles systematically undermined it. By declaring that slaves and masters are equal brothers in Christ, the New Testament cut the legs out from under human ownership.

The slave-catching ban. The transatlantic slave trade, which relied on kidnapping and racial hierarchy, was explicitly condemned by biblical law. Exodus and the New Testament both categorize "enslaving" or "manstealing" as capital sins, exposing the hypocrisy of Christian slaveholders.

Abolitionist fire. Christian convictions fueled the global abolitionist movement, led by figures like William Wilberforce in Britain and Harriet Tubman in America. Despite the tragic blind spots of many white churches, enslaved people recognized the true, liberating heart of Jesus:

• Runaway slaves like Frederick Douglass embraced Christianity because they saw Jesus as the ultimate fellow sufferer.
• The black church emerged as a miraculous testament to the power of the gospel under oppression.
• The apostle Paul's letter to Philemon demanded that a runaway slave be welcomed back as an equal brother.

10. Suffering and judgment are not contradictions of God's love, but central to the Christian story.

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart.

The fellow sufferer. The presence of suffering is the hardest challenge to faith, but Christianity does not offer a remote, detached deity. Instead, we find a God who entered our pain, wept at the grave of his friend, and took the ultimate force of human suffering upon himself on the cross.

The necessity of judgment. Our modern aversion to judgment collapses when we are confronted with genuine evil, such as abuse, genocide, or terrorism. God's wrath is not a temper tantrum, but the necessary, loving reaction of a perfectly just Creator against the destruction of his children.

The scandal of grace. The cross of Christ satisfies both perfect justice and perfect love, allowing God to punish sin while offering unconditional forgiveness to the guilty. We are all capable of evil, but Jesus offers to bear our judgment if we will only surrender to him:

• Suffering is not a proportional punishment for individual sin, but a path to deeper intimacy with God.
• Hell is the ultimate respect for human free will, allowing those who reject God to exist apart from him.
• The resurrection of Jesus guarantees that suffering is not the end of our story, but the prelude to eternal joy.