Generous Orthodoxy - Discerning God's Work In The World: Tips From The Times For Preachers: Those atheists: not all non-Christians like them

Fleming Rutledge is a preacher and teacher known throughout the mainline Protestant denominations of the US, Canada and parts of the UK. She is the author of seven books and has received a grant from the Louisville Foundation to complete a book about the meaning of the Crucifixion.

One of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, she served for fourteen years on the clergy staff at Grace Church on Lower Broadway at Tenth Street, New York City.

Fleming and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2009 and have two daughters and two grandchildren. She is a native of Franklin, Virginia.

More About Fleming >

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Those atheists: not all non-Christians like them

Never underestimate The New York Review of Books, that most intellectually highbrow of journals, which continues to surprise with the occasional Christian-friendly piece. An essay-review by H. Allen Orr, a professor of biology, witheringly criticizes Richard Dawkins, author of one of the recent best-selling atheist books The God Delusion. Orr, a biology professor, is not religious, but he is quite acerbic about Dawkins’ failure to see that the most dreadful crimes of the 20th century were committed by atheistic regimes. Orr also notes that the values of the West that Dawkins values did not arise out of Confucian or Buddhist or Hindu culture but out of the Judeo-Christian tradition. (New York Review of Books, January 11, 2007)

It should be more widely noted: a significant number of non-Christian critics have written scathing reviews of books by atheists Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Dawkins. One of their chief complaints is that they are not scholarly, indeed are "middlebrow." We should take this as a great compliment to the intellectual dimensions of Christian faith.

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The purpose of this feature is to stimulate preachers' thinking about what God is doing to alleviate suffering and overcome oppression, and to illustrate how local congregations might join in that divine work.

Many people have asked me how I keep up with the news. The answer is that I read, read, read. It is not possible to get news in depth from television. Perhaps this running selection of excerpts from various news sources can be a stimulus for pastors. The idea is to use some of these illustrations to show where Christians can align themselves with God's justifying purpose. He is already at work. How can we join him where his purposes are going forward?

Do not fear plagiarism. I will be working much of this material into my own sermons, but I will do it in my own way and readers will do it in theirs.