Church rededicated after Good Friday graffiti attack

On the morning of Good Friday, parishioners at St. James’ Church in Leyland (a town two hundred miles northwest of London) arrived to find that their church had been vandalized with graffiti. The graffiti included sexually graphic images and expletives; gravestones of parishioners’ family members were defiled as well. On the church itself, the words “god is a lie” were sprayed on the outer wall next to an obscene picture.

Several leaders joined together on Easter Sunday to rededicate the church to the worship of God. The church’s pastor, Rev. Marc Wolverson, described the incident as the worst he had seen in twenty-eight years.

He said, “I don’t know what would motivate someone to act this way.”

I think I might.

Five charges against the church

As I explain in my book, The Coming Tsunami, critics of Christianity have been claiming for decades that our faith is not just outdated and irrelevant but actually destructive and dangerous to society. I have faced such claims personally over the years.

Critics’ arguments typically center on five allegations:

• The horrific clergy abuse scandal is used to paint churches and ministers as dangerous to children and their families.
• Those of us who declare and defend biblical sexual morality are accused of being homophobic, transphobic, and dangerous to sexual minorities.
• Theological traditions that believe only men should be in church leadership are viewed as chauvinistic and dangerous to women.
• Christians who seek to evangelize others are seen as intolerant and dangerous to non-Christians around the world.
• Christians who engage in partisan politics are accused of being divisive and dangerous to those who disagree with them.

Of course, I cannot know what motivated the attack on St. James’ Church in Leyland, but its graffiti aligns with these claims. As persecution against Christians continues to rise around the world, affecting one in seven believers worldwide, we can expect cultural animosity to rise as well.

Those who accuse Christians of being dangerous to society often fixate on biblical teachings they claim make their point. Knowing how to respond can help us not only to be more confident in our faith but also more effective in our witness.

When “no one had air conditioning”

The largest biblical argument Christians face in our post-Christian society concerns slavery. This is because critics claim that the Bible does not oppose this horrific practice; some say it condones it.

For example:

• “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money” (Exodus 21:20–21).
• “You may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you” (Leviticus 25:44).
• “You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you” (Deuteronomy 23:15).

However, there is much more to this complex subject. To view the entire biblical teaching on slavery through these verses and then to contrast them with modern society is to commit the fallacy called “presentism,” defined as “an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experiences.”

As a simple example, I remember a childhood conversation with my grandfather in which he mentioned that “no one had air conditioning” when he was growing up. Since we lived in Houston, Texas, this thought was horrifying for me. Shocked, I asked, “How did you survive?” He smiled and replied, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

It is presentism to ignore the cultural and historical context of the biblical era and then to map current culture onto it and criticize the differences. Those who commit this fallacy may not understand what they are doing, but I suspect many do and yet persist for the rhetorical advantages that follow.

Explaining slavery in the Bible

For example, slavery in the biblical era was not racial but cultural. People could be purchased as slaves (Genesis 37:28), sell themselves to pay a debt (Leviticus 25:39–55), be enslaved for breaking into a home (Exodus 22:3), or become enslaved as prisoners of war (Joel 3:6).

The fact that slavery was not a racial issue is made clear by Paul’s declaration: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). “Jew nor Greek” describes the racial division of the day, while “slave nor free” is an economic distinction, not a racial one.

Furthermore, slavery in the New Testament era was a fact that transcended borders and boundaries. Owning and using slaves was so common in the Roman Empire that not a single ancient writer is known to have condemned the practice.

For the Bible to forbid it and insist that all slaves be freed (the position we would assuredly support today) would be akin to asserting that capitalism is evil and insisting that all Christians desist from it immediately. Such would not just be unrealistic but impossible, leading to an uprising that would have been quickly annihilated as a rebellion and a threat to the Empire.

However, the Old Testament goes much further than its cultural context to recognize the inherent value of slaves, protect them, and identify ways they can be freed. For example:

• An individual could be purchased and freed (Exodus 21:8).
• A slave permanently injured by his master was to be freed (Exodus 21:26).
• Hebrews were to be held as slaves no longer than six years (Deuteronomy 15:12).
• The Jubilee Year, which occurred every forty-nine years, was to free all Israelite slaves (Leviticus 25:50).

The New Testament continues this trajectory toward the sanctity of all lives and freedom for all:

• Paul abolished even the possibility of racial or economic discrimination for followers of Christ (Galatians 3:26–28).
• Wherever the apostolic church spoke to this issue, it did so with a view to freedom and equality (cf. Philemon 16).
• The church gave those who were enslaved a family and a home.
• Not a single New Testament leader owned slaves or condoned slavery, even though many had the means to purchase them (cf. Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Barnabas). 

This trajectory led William Wilberforce and countless other Christians to do all they could to abolish slavery. In addition, most of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the US were Christians; many were ministers, both black and white.

“I don’t like the way you do evangelism”

In his book Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity, John S. Dickerson shows that followers of Jesus created the university and college systems, advanced literacy through public education, founded modern science, began the fight for women’s rights, ended open slavery, drove racial reconciliation, and fought for justice and progress in a multitude of arenas.

Christian teachings led to the establishment of the first hospitals and influenced the development of modern medicine. Many of the best-ranked hospitals in the US were founded by Christians. And more than 90 percent of universities founded in the US prior to the Civil War were created by Christian denominations.

According to the World Economic Forum, religion annually contributes $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the US economy.

So, the next time a critic condemns our faith as dangerous to society, ask them about these facts. Share ways you and your church are engaged in compassion and ministry for those in need. Then, ask them what they are doing personally to counter the evils of our fallen world.

A woman once said to the famed evangelist Dwight Moody, “I don’t like the way you do evangelism.”

Moody asked, “Well, ma’am, let me ask you, how do you do it?”

She replied, “I don’t!”

He responded, “Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”

How will you “do evangelism” today?