{"id":109,"date":"2015-04-08T17:08:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T21:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/?p=109"},"modified":"2015-04-08T17:08:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T21:08:44","slug":"how-non-christians-hear-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"How Non-Christians Hear Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

With all the hoopla about religious freedom<\/a> and the persecution of Christians, a post<\/a> by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the secular caught my eye. In this piece, Challies quotes Nancy Pearcey, the worldview proponent extraordinaire, on why Christians so often talk past non-Christians:<\/p>\n

Listen to what Pearcey says: \u201cThis same division also explains why Christians have such difficulty communicating in the public arena. It\u2019s crucial for us to realize that nonbelievers are constantly filtering what we say through a mental fact\/value grid. For example, when we state a position on an issue like abortion or bioethics or homosexuality, we intend to assert an objective moral truth important to the health of society\u2014but they think we\u2019re merely expressing our subjective bias.\u201d When we see design in the universe, we are making a testable and verifiable claim, but they hear only religious irrationality. When we say that homosexual marriage is against God\u2019s design, they see irrational personal preference creeping into the public discussion. As Pearcey says, \u201cThe fact\/value grid instantly dissolves away the objective content of anything we say\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what should we do? Again, Challies relies on Pearcey:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to reject the division of life into a sacred realm limited to things like worship and personal morality, over against a secular realm that includes science, politics, economics, and the rest of the public arena.\u201d We have to understand that the Bible describes a way of looking at the world that is perfectly unified, where both facts and values flow from the same Source and achieve the same great end. Today more than ever, we must be people who know and love and live the Word of God. And then we must be prepared to stand on, and suffer for, what we know is true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But another way to avoid being misunderstood is to do exactly the opposite, namely, to recognize the proper distinctions between public and private life, or to acknowledge that what someone believes or does as a Christian is not the same as what Americans believe or do. And such a distinction might prompt Christians to hold their holiday services not in public spaces but in private ones. Consider the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n

On Sunday the 37th annual Lincoln Memorial Easter Sunrise Service, hosted by Capital Church, gathered a record breaking crowd. Service organizers reported an estimated 8,900 people awoke \u201cdark-thirty\u201d to travel into downtown Washington DC to participate in the Easter Sun Rise service and worship celebration. Millennials represented an overwhelming portion of the participants huddled among the plastic chairs, ground and steps surrounding the Lincoln Memorial.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I understand that many American Christians revere Abraham Lincoln whose life in 1865 ended tragically on the night before Easter. But what exactly does Lincoln or the Memorial have to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Might not Christians have places more fitting for such a service other than one that they share with Americans who are not evangelical or Christian? <\/p>\n

Nancy Pearcey might have a point that competing worldviews explain why Christians and non-Christians don\u2019t understand each other. But her notion of worldview (popularized by the likes of Tim Challies) may actually prevent Christians from considering how they really do come across. If Christians think (naively in my estimation) that they are merely expressing objective truth, then they may not be capable of sensing the subtext (or extratext) of their assertions. For instance, Christians may think that they are merely defending religious liberty (in the case of Indiana\u2019s proposed law) without ever considering how such concerns come across to gay rights advocates and homosexuals. <\/p>\n

Of course, sensitivity to other people\u2019s points of view should go both ways in civil society. But don\u2019t Christians have higher standards? <\/p>\n

(Image<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the secular caught my eye. In this piece, Challies quotes Nancy Pearcey, the worldview proponent extraordinaire, on why Christians so often talk past non-Christians: Listen to what Pearcey says: \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2170,"featured_media":111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,108],"tags":[111,110,81,109],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism","category-sacredsecular-distinction","tag-lincoln-memorial-easter-sunrise-service","tag-nancy-pearcey","tag-tim-challies","tag-worldview"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Non-Christians Hear Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Non-Christians Hear Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Putting the Protest in Protestant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/519\/2015\/04\/US_Penny_obverse_2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"753\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"D. G. Hart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"D. G. Hart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/\",\"name\":\"How Non-Christians Hear Christians\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/a3f06ea0a83ba126d13acf6fd7526d24\"},\"description\":\"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Non-Christians Hear Christians\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/\",\"name\":\"Putting the Protest in Protestant\",\"description\":\"Love is not the same as nice.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/a3f06ea0a83ba126d13acf6fd7526d24\",\"name\":\"D. G. Hart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d201b68465df37f9e15daeaae5452b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d201b68465df37f9e15daeaae5452b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"D. G. Hart\"},\"description\":\"D. G. Hart lives in Michigan with his wife, Ann, and their two cats, Isabelle and Cordelia, where he teaches history at Hillsdale College. Hart used to be an East-Coast snob (though he still roots for the Phillies) but while living in a small mid-western town he has learned that life exists outside the Northeast Corridor. He is currently completing a global history of Calvinism and plans to write books on H. L. Mencken and American religion, and on Roman Catholicism and American conservatism.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/author\/dghart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Non-Christians Hear Christians","description":"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Non-Christians Hear Christians","og_description":"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/","og_site_name":"Putting the Protest in Protestant","article_published_time":"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":753,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/519\/2015\/04\/US_Penny_obverse_2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"D. G. Hart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"D. G. Hart","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/","name":"How Non-Christians Hear Christians","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-08T21:08:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/a3f06ea0a83ba126d13acf6fd7526d24"},"description":"With all the hoopla about religious freedom and the persecution of Christians, a post by Tim Challies about the dangers of separating the sacred and the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/2015\/04\/how-non-christians-hear-christians\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Non-Christians Hear Christians"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/","name":"Putting the Protest in Protestant","description":"Love is not the same as nice.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/a3f06ea0a83ba126d13acf6fd7526d24","name":"D. G. Hart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d201b68465df37f9e15daeaae5452b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d201b68465df37f9e15daeaae5452b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"D. G. Hart"},"description":"D. G. Hart lives in Michigan with his wife, Ann, and their two cats, Isabelle and Cordelia, where he teaches history at Hillsdale College. Hart used to be an East-Coast snob (though he still roots for the Phillies) but while living in a small mid-western town he has learned that life exists outside the Northeast Corridor. He is currently completing a global history of Calvinism and plans to write books on H. L. Mencken and American religion, and on Roman Catholicism and American conservatism.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/author\/dghart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/protestprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}