CCU Apologetics Series: Part 1

January 18, 2010 marked the beginning of a six week apologetics series titled “Tough Questions About Christianity” here at Colorado Christian University. Dr. Phil Mitchell, Associate Professor of History at CCU, gave a well-reasoned and impassioned lecture regarding “the secular accusation that Christian history mostly consists of atrocities and therefore can be discarded with other ‘unprogressive’ religions of history.” He first presented four general principles that we should take into account when regarding events of history, after which he discussed six of the atrocities that some say merit the dismissal of the Christian faith.

Dr. Mitchell’s four principles include:
1) “Every sin that can be committed has been committed by Christians, and committed in the name of Christ.” Christians are just as capable of committing sin as any other human being and we do not have any doctrine that states otherwise. A Christian who knows the Truth of the Gospel will not claim that that he is sinless and will in fact state that it is impossible for him to be sinless as long as he is living this earthly life.
2) “Those who have power will abuse it.”  Power has a tendency to corrupt even those who follow Christ.
3) “In the study of history, all questions have to be given this answer: ‘Compared to what?’” In other words, when we look at atrocities that Christians have committed in the name of Christ, we need to compare them to other atrocities that have been committed in the name of other ideologies and religions that have far exceeded those of Christians in magnitude and severity.
4) “To the extent that Christianity conforms to the culture, they will conform to the sins of that culture.” The atrocity is never a result of Christianity by itself, but it is always a result of the cultural sins that a particular group of Christians have allowed themselves to be conformed to.

The first atrocity that Dr. Mitchell addressed was the Crusades. He stated that those who participated were simply doing what had been done to them centuries earlier (although this does not justify their actions). Some of them wanted access to the Holy Land, but others supported the Crusades simply because the population was becoming exceedingly large and the Crusades helped reduce it. Needless to say, the Crusades had no connection with New Testament Christianity; this was a result of the culture in which these particular Christians were living at the time. Dr. Mitchell also states that if religion ceased to exist, there would still be wars, because people will do anything to make an excuse for war. Humans are sinful.

The second atrocity addressed was the Inquisition. Dr. Mitchell says that the Roman Catholics were afraid of heresy because they equated it with treason. They believed that if there was no religious consistency in their culture, there would also be war in their culture, and that was true! Dr. Mitchell says, “If you disagreed with the Church you destabilized society.” He employed his third principle for studying the atrocious events of history here: “It was wrong, but compared to what?” There have been many atrocious events in history that have far exceeded this in magnitude and severity. He also stated that forced conversion is an oxymoron and inconsistent with New Testament theology. The Inquisition was merely “an arm of the monarch.”

The third atrocity was “missionary abuse of natives” which Dr. Mitchell quickly stated is “absurd” because the only group of people protecting the natives were missionaries. He states that there was tension between the missionaries and the military in this area. Dr. Mitchell states that missionaries are the “greatest agents of cross-cultural blessing who have ever existed,” and he questions why, if they are “so bad,” countless people have come to know Christ through them. Dr. Mitchell also pointed out that in foreign countries, one hardly ever sees orphanages or hospitals established by atheistic Marxist organizations. He says, “You can talk to me about the moral failures of my religion after you show up!”

The fourth atrocity that Dr. Mitchell addressed was the Salem Witch Trials. He said that the killings of those who were believed to perform witchcraft were more an example of occult belief than Christianity. Those who killed the “witches” believed that their spells had power, unlike most Christians, especially those of today. Dr. Mitchell also stated that the Salem Witch Trials were much smaller in terms of the amount of people that were killed as compared to the “witch” killings that took place in Europe.

The fifth atrocity was slavery. Dr. Mitchell states that the Christian church has been very tolerant of slavery, but slavery is also a very universal practice. In fact, what is strange about Western culture is the fact that we abolished slavery; those responsible for the abolition were mostly Christians like William Wilberforce (Abraham Lincoln was also a Christian, as well as Martin Luther King, Jr.). Also, past tolerance of slavery doesn’t seem to deter today’s African Americans from having a relationship with Jesus, so it shouldn’t be a deterring factor for those who are not African Americans.

The last atrocity addressed was the Holocaust, and Dr. Mitchell says it is amazing that anyone would attribute this to Christianity, as Hitler was far from being a Christian (he hated Christianity, in fact). Academic historians generally state that Hitler was actually a Social Darwinist.

Dr. Mitchell closed by saying that the sins of Christians are not justified by the sins of others, but it helps us to put the sins of Christians into perspective. “Christianity has blessed the world more than any other religious faith.” He says that the people of the world agree with this, as seen in the way that they have a tendency to “hustle themselves to Christian culture.” When asked if there are any other atrocities committed in the name of Christ that bother him, Dr. Mitchell said, “Of course!” But God is sovereign over these things and has a plan. “History is ‘His Story.’”