Andrew's Annotations and Anecdotes

Matthew Parris’s opinion piece in the Times on December 27th has been generally quite well received by Christians – I know this because I have been sent the web link by loads of people in various e-mails!

It’s true that, at first sight, Parris is very positive about Christianity. Here’s what he says about returning to Malawi, the country of his childhood: “Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.”

Speaking of the people he met Parris continued: “It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with their personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was in turn, influenced by a conception of man’s place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.”

The specific thing Parris finds admirable about the Christian world view is that it emphasises the autonomy of the individual and their accountability individually to God. This, he believes, helps to fight against the "big man" mentality he sees in African society. But because the individual is accountable to God they also see that there is a responsibility to care for others.

Matthew Parris has understood something true and important about the gospel. In the Christian worldview there is both great personal freedom and great social responsibility. Being a believing Christian makes for people with a healthy self-understanding and a sacrificial willingness to serve others.

Parris' conclusion is stark: “Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.”

I do not think that Matthew Parris is alone. Many, perhaps most, people in our society think similarly. They recognise that centuries of Christian influence on our country has produced many good things. They applaud the good works of Christian people that they see in society. But they think you can hold on to all that and not believe that the Christian message is actually, objectively, really, historically true.

However there are a number of problems with the article and the fairly widespread view that it represents.

Parris is, as he says, a confirmed atheist. He is not only convinced that he Christian message is not true but that there is no God. So, when you think about it, what he is asking us to do is believe that we can have spiritual enlightenment, that there can be something real and powerful in the Christian message, that is nothing to do with whether or not that message is actually true. Nothing to do with whether or not Jesus was actually the god-man. Nothing to do, even, with whether or not there is a God.

In the end it seems that what Parris is saying is that for African people it takes believing in a God who isn't actually there to make them live in a way that strikes the right balance between the individual and society. That should make us ask some pretty serious questions.

Does this apply just to Africa? After all surely, apart from the witch doctor, a "malign fusion" of Nike, the mobile phone and the machete is a pretty apt description of much of urban Britain? And if Parris does thinks it applies everywhere then does it apply to him? Does he think that he ought to be a Christian but simply can't bring himself to believe it? If so, what would he say to an African in the same position? Couldn't another atheist simply reply to Parris that his view of the right balance between the individual and the community it simply conditioned by his Christianized cultural background?

For 2,000 years Christians have believed that you cannot separate the Christian world-view from the historical events surrounding the life and death of Jesus Christ. If those are not true then the Christian world view is not true. And if it is true then the Christian world-view is true for everybody, whether they happen to accept its truth or not.

As inconvenient as it is each of us needs to accept not only that it is personal faith that transforms corporate life and attitudes to other people but that this personal faith is a response to the reality of the universe as it has been created by the God who is there.