Apologetics for the Masses - Issue #8

The background: A friend of mine, Adrianne, sent out a mass email to her friends and acquaintances regarding a television program that NBC was planning on airing that was going to make light of our Lord’s crucifixion. In the email, it asks concerned Christians to contact NBC and let them know that they were upset by NBC’s plans to air a program that would be so offensive to Christians.

One of Adrianne’s acquaintances from a time in Adrianne’s life when she wasn’t all that concerned about God, was on Adrianne’s email list and, therefore, received the email about the NBC program. Her name is Kimberly.

Below is Kimberly’s response to Adrianne’s email. Kimberly, instead of replying just to Adrianne, hit the “reply all” button, which means she sent to everyone on Adrianne’s email list…which is how I received it and came to reply to it.

Since it’s very short, I first reproduced it in it’s entirety, and then I broke it up and put my response to her comments immediately following each of her thoughts.

As always, your feedback is welcomed and will be read, although I may not be able to respond to all of your emails. And, as always, if you like what you read, please let friends know about this newsletter and that they can sign up for it at: www.biblechristiansociety.com.

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Note: the email from Kimberly is reproduced as received, so all grammatical or spelling errors are in the original.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Hi Adriane,

The producers honor Jesus Christ and in no means mean to offend.

JUST DON’T TUNE IN.

I felt The Passion of the Christ was over the top offensively violent. I won’t go again.

But I’m granting you your religion. I feel the intollerance of homosexuality is offensive and resembles Nazi Germany.

Please do not forward these to me. I find this antiAmerican.

It just time to speak up and stop turning my head.

Lovingly,

Kimberly

Hello Kimberly,

Even though we don’t know each other, I decided to respond to you since you sent your response to everyone on Adrianne’s list, instead of just to her. Your comments are in italics:

“The producers honor Jesus Christ and in no means mean to offend.”

I’m sorry, but I find this a little hard to believe. NBC, and the other major networks, have done any number of things in the past that offended Christians, and having heard from Christians on various matters time after time after time, one would think that they would have some idea of what is and isn’t offensive to Christians by now. I think they know exactly what they are doing. I’m curious, did the producers tell you this themselves…that they intend this show to honor Jesus Christ?

“JUST DON’T TUNE IN.”

So, if NBC was running programming that was sponsored by the KKK and it was offensive to African-Americans…would you tell them not to protest but to “JUST DON’T TUNE IN?” If it was a program by Nazis that was offensive to the Jews, would you tell them not to protest but to “JUST DON’T TUNE IN?” If it was a program by Catholics that showed how homosexuality is contrary to nature and nature’s God, and this offended homosexuals, would you tell them not to protest but to “JUST DON’T TUNE IN?” I would bet not. I would bet you might join in their protests, especially against the Catholics.

“I felt The Passion of the Christ was over the top offensively violent.”

So, do you think the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ was somehow not offensively violent? Mel Gibson wanted to make a movie that would give folks some idea of what Jesus actually went through for each and every one of us. Quite often we forget how much Jesus does indeed love us and this movie was a reminder of His love for us.

“But I’m granting you your religion. I feel the intollerance of homosexuality is offensive and resembles Nazi Germany.”

So, you’re tolerant of our intolerance? Well, we certainly appreciate that. Have you ever looked into why Catholics believe homosexual relations are contrary to nature and to nature’s God? In other words, do you compare us to Nazi Germany after carefully reviewing our position and finding it without merit, or do you do so out of ignorance and bigotry?

A very basic argument, but by no means a thoroughly exhaustive one, is that one can, just by looking at a male body and a female body, quite easily come to the conclusion that a man was made to have physical relations with a woman and vice versa. Nature did not design men to have physical relations with men nor did it design women to have physical relations with women. Therefore, it is very easy to conclude that homosexual relations are contrary to nature. And, if homosexual relations are contrary to nature, then that would mean that they are contrary to nature’s God. And, if they are contrary to nature’s God, then it is not a sign of intolerance when we speak against homosexual behavior, it is a sign of love. The worse thing one could do is condone behavior which is contrary to God’s design. I think indifference towards sin, under the guise of “tolerance,” shows a true lack of love for one’s fellow man.

“Please do not forward these to me. I find this antiAmerican.”

Well, now, wait a minute. You’ve gone from tolerant to intolerant pretty quickly here. So, you find freedom of speech to be anti-American? You find protesting things that you disagree with to be anti-American? Again, I ask what if NBC was airing programming that was anti-African-American; or anti-Jewish; or anti-homosexual? Would you find protests against that type of programming to be anti-American?

“It just time to speak up and stop turning my head.”

But wait a minute…that’s what Adrianne was doing with her email. I thought that was anti-American? How come you get to speak up and stop turning your head, but you call Adrianne anti-American for doing just that. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical?

“Lovingly,”

Isn’t that nice. You “lovingly” referred to her as an anti-American, intolerant, Nazi. I applaud your chutzpah.

John Martignoni

In Conclusion

There are a lot of folks out there protesting the stance taken by Christians, and especially by Catholics, on a number of moral issues…abortion, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, etc. These people rarely bring anything but ignorance and bigotry to their arguments against Christians and Christian teaching. The way to answer them is with logic and common sense and to simply turn their arguments around on them.

The natural apologetics came in during the part on homosexuality. The Church’s position on homosexuality is rooted in natural law. And, the response I made above is simply a common sense observation of reality. Anyone, whether they believe in God or not, should be able to understand that argument.

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