Let’s Talk About Faith

Commenting on Brit Hume's recent suggestion that Tiger Woods seek the redemption that Christianity offers and the subsequent angst of secularists on MSNBC and elsewhere, Russ Douthat gets it right, (although I'm uncomfortable with his implicit characterization of Jesus of Nazareth merely as an enlightened sage!) His words ought to inform our public discourse long after we've forgotten this particular incident. I've excerpted the key paragraphs below....

Many Christians have decided that the best way to compete in an era of political correctness is to play the victim card.

But these believers are colluding in their own marginalization. If you treat your faith like a hothouse flower, too vulnerable to survive in the crass world of public disputation, then you ensure that nobody will take it seriously. The idea that religion is too mysterious, too complicated or too personal to be debated on cable television just ensures that it never gets debated at all....

When liberal democracy was forged, in the wake of Western Europe’s religious wars, this sort of peaceful theological debate is exactly what it promised to deliver. And the differences between religions are worth debating. Theology has consequences: It shapes lives, families, nations, cultures, wars; it can change people, save them from themselves, and sometimes warp or even destroy them.

If we tiptoe politely around this reality, then we betray every teacher, guru and philosopher — including Jesus of Nazareth and the Buddha both — who ever sought to resolve the most human of all problems: How then should we live?

It’s reasonable to doubt that a cable news analyst has the right answer to this question. But the debate that Brit Hume kicked off a week ago is still worth having. Indeed, it’s the most important one there is.

via www.nytimes.com