So i was in a philosophy club meeting tonight (and if that doesn't make me a dork, i'm sure i could come up with something else), and we ended up deriving a really interesting and applicable point from parts of a transcription of a speech by Albert Camus.

The thing that stuck out the most to me about what Camus (a non-Christian) had to say in front of a group of Christians was these two sentences:

"Possibly it (Christianity) will insist on losing once and for all the virtue of revolt and indignation that belonged to it long ago. In that case Christians will live and Christianity will die."

As far as i'm concerned, he's absolutely right. If we lose that sense of being offended at sin, of wanting to stay away from it, of avoiding denying God at all costs, we save ourselves from social rejection and persecution, but we lose ourselves to the flames of hell itself. This brought to my mind, though, another question: How do you resolve a fact like that with the fact that Christians need to avoid being heavy-handed and close-minded when talking to nonbelievers?

The answer came through a round-about discussion involving many different points and different parts of Camus' speech, and what we ended up with was this: In our efforts to help the world around us, we must help others as fellow humans first before we can begin to show others where our desire to help comes from. We should be focusing our efforts on the issues that all of humanity can agree need help - i.e., poverty, hunger, etc. The Bible itself says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (James 1:27). Why are so many of us so busy being adamantly involved in practices such as protesting abortion clinics and other social issues when fighting like that only drives a wedge between us and the rest of humanity? I'm not condoning abortion, smoking, drinking, or anything like that; i'm simply suggesting that we start at the ground level - helping people rather than attempting to destroy social establishments that ultimately will continue to exist. Once people know that the Christian church is looking out for people and trying to help them where they are, perhaps they'll be just a little more open to our opinions in other matters. Sometimes Christians (in general) seem so naive to me.

Camus said at a different point in his speech, "Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children" (i'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about abortion, and neither am i; we're talking about the general condition of humanity). Camus practiced what he preached and lived his life trying to help others. He ended his speech with, "...if Christians made up their minds to it, millions of voices - millions, I say - throughout the world would be added to the appeal of a handful of isolated individuals who, without any sort of affiliation, today intercede almost everywhere and ceaselessly for children and for men." We should be a part of that group - interceding for humanity in general, not trying to force a social agenda on a society destined to ultimately reject it. We can't save society, but we can save members of it (with God's help, of course)...but only if we do it the right way.

I'm not saying don't live a Christ-like life. I'm saying don't, as one member of the group tonight put it, take a homeless guy out for a meal and make absolutely sure to say at the end, "You know, the real reason i brought you out here is because i have Jesus in my heart..." A relationship has to be formed with a person before they will be at all willing to seriously consider the beliefs that guide your life. Let people know how much you care as a fellow human.

a brief and terribly undescriptive return - 10.28.04
- - 09.17.04
- - 08.16.04
- - 08.13.04
- - 07.30.04