February Book of the Month: The Unlikely Disciple

Recently a friend lent me her copy of The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University. Written by Kevin Roose, the book highlights his experiences as a secular college kid from Brown University who spent a semester amidst the evangelical Christian culture of Liberty University.

The premise of the book immediately piqued my interest both personally and professionally. I grew up in an evangelical home not far from Liberty University (LU), some of my closest friends studied there, and I went to an evangelical university that has many similarities with LU. How would Kevin respond to and evaluate the culture I’ve always known?

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Religious Pluralism’s Creed

Religious Pluralism is a very common belief in our world today. It holds that all religions are fundamentally the same and valid, teaching the same message and achieving the same religious goals. In other words, all religions are correct. All paths lead to Rome. All journeys lead to the top of the same mountain.

This belief system has led me to ask, if Religious Pluralism in our culture had a creed what would it look like? What would it affirm? I think it might look something like this.

Is Seeing Believing?

As an apologist I am constantly thinking through the evidence that surrounds my Christian faith. I’m always looking for ways to communicate the reasonableness and evidence for my belief in Jesus Christ. I want to explain that I have not made a blind leap into the abyss of nothingness so many have dubbed “faith.”

Yet no matter how strongly I’m able to demonstrate the truth of Christianity there will be people who continue to tell me, “Your faith is blind.” In other words, if I would open my eyes and choose to see, I’d give up my faith in God and in Jesus Christ specifically. They tell me I can’t see God, and what I think is evidence is really phantom lights as my eyes strain in the darkness. The clear implication is that seeing is believing; sight is foundational to belief.