One of my favorite movies is Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The
action is intense and the portrayals of the characters are brilliant. I normally don’t consider myself discerning
enough to assess good acting or bad acting.
I just know I loved that film and much of my love for it involves the
way the characters interacted. This
includes the way Stephen Fry played the part of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s
brother.
I am pretty sure that is all I knew
of Stephen Fry until recently when he was interviewed and the interviewer,
knowing Fry is an atheist, asked him what he would say to God if there was a
God. “Suppose it’s all true,”
interviewer Gay Byrne asks, “And you walk up to the pearly gates, and you are
confronted by God.” What would the
atheist say?
“Bone cancer in children?” Fry
responds, “What’s that about? How dare
you! How dare you create a world in
which there is such misery which is not our fault.”[i] He goes on to deal with theodicy, the problem
of evil and suffering. If there is a
God, Fry would want no part of him or his heaven because God demands adoration
and worship from humans while at the same time imposing unspeakable pain on
us.
At one point the camera pans to
Byrne whose looks taken aback, but why would he? Why would anyone be surprised? He knew before he asked the question that Fry
is an outspoken atheist. His statement
is consistent with his worldview.
Atheists don’t think there is a God.
Outspoken atheism advocates not only don’t believe, but also are hostile
toward Christian expressions of God.
They also reject theologies in other faiths, but I will stick to my field
of familiarity, the evangelical stream in Christianity.
After the video was aired, there was
the expected backlash which puzzles me as much as Byrne’s surprise. Why would Christian leaders speak out in opposition
to an atheist saying what atheists say?
One clergyman called him “spiritually blind.”[ii] Well, no kidding. We Christians believe Jesus is the Light
(John 8:12). If someone has not put
their faith in him and given their life to him, then they are blind. We could say that about anyone who does not
profess faith in Jesus, so billions of people.
But, we must say this with
humility. We think the Bible is
true. We think the message of the Bible is
wrapped up in a simple declaration: Jesus is Lord. So, anyone who does not affirm that assertion
and live under Jesus’ Lordship is lost.
That’s what we think. That is a
base level evangelical confession.
Nothing Mr. Fry said enlightens that.
Harangues from red-faces pastors may give him a chuckle, but it won’t
change his worldview. The only way
Stephen Fry would overcome theodicy would be revelation. The Holy Spirit would need to get a hold of
him in a way that he would see and then choose to respond.
I believe the Holy Spirit comes to
all people throughout their lives. I do
not believe in irresistible grace.
People can choose. Judas Iscariot
walked with Jesus, saw the miracles, and was himself filled with the power of
God (Mark 6:13). Still, he chose to
betray Jesus. He was that close and
still chose another path, one that leads away from God and to death. Just as Judas has choices, so too does Mr.
Fry. And I do not assume he will always
profess atheism. He may one day turn and
follow Jesus.
He won’t do it because pastors
hammer him with scripture verses. That
is the wrong tack. It always is. And it won’t work with him because several things
he said are absolutely true. First, he
said there is awful misery and suffering in the world. He’s correct. It makes one’s heart sick to see starvation,
racism, disease, and so many other things that hurt people. This should be grieved and not shrugged
off. Agony over pain should be brought
right to God.
Second, Stephen Fry is absolutely
right in his statement that God expects us to spend our lives worshiping
God. Fry presents this as a burdensome
duty that is distasteful because of God’s complicity in human misery. I think he has no sense of how wonderful
worship is but that is not my point here.
I want to affirm that yes, there is pain; and yes, the Christian view is
that the proper way humans relate to God is in worship.
So, if he is right then what could a
Christian possibly say in response? I’ve
seen Fry’s words described as a rant, but I found him to be quite
eloquent. He’s the type of speaker who
is so interesting and beautiful in his speech that I think I could listen to him
read the ingredients on a canned soup label.
What can I or any Christian say?
I don’t think we attempt to prove
God’s goodness or God’s existence. If
God could be reduced to proofs, God wouldn’t be God. No, what I think we do is bear witness. We say that we believe where there is
suffering that is where God is. And we
undergird this belief by going to where there is suffering, helping where can,
comforting where it is needed, praying constantly, and standing with those who suffer. We can say God is with those who hurt the
most because we have been with those who hurt the most and thus we saw God
there.
I think of the words of the
brilliant song by Matthew West. “So, I shook my fist at Heaven, Said 'God why don't You do something?' He said, ‘I did, I
created you.’”[iii] West beautifully captures what Christ
followers know. The miracles of God come
in the context of real human lives. Do
you want to see a miracle? Go where God
is at work. If Christians are the
leading voices advocating for peace, the leading minds in cancer research, and
the leading volunteers on projects to feed and educated the poorest of the
poor, and if we do it all in the name of and to the glory of Jesus Christ, we
will make our statement about God. It
won’t convince Stephen Fry of anything, not without the Holy Spirit grabbing
his mind and heart. But it will dramatically
punctuate our insistence that Jesus is Lord.
I
recoiled when I first heard what Fry said to Byrne. It is sharp.
But I hope the Holy Spirit will whisper this message to all believers
who aren’t sure how to best give a different view of God. I hope the Holy Spirit will tell us
evangelicals, “Don’t worry about Stephen Fry.
Pray for him. And then come
volunteer your time to care for kids with bone cancer. Lay hands on them and pray for them. Volunteer your time to be on teams that
travel to third world communities plagued by blindness, illiteracy, and hunger.” If we go and serve, both locally and
globally, we will see what God is doing.
We will live in that story. And
we won’t need clever comebacks to the articulate atheist. We just say what we have seen.
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