A co-worker of mind and her husband attend a pretty seeker-friendly church, and she’s admitted to me that she doesn’t feel like the church actually teaches that much. The format seems to be that the pastor will choose some topic that he’ll cover for a couple of months, and it might be “relationships” or whatever, but they don’t actually go through the Bible.
Her husband leads a small group Bible study for high school students, and he had to come up with a good present for the graduating kids. She thought since I was closer to their age (they are probably late 40′s – early 50′s) I’d have some idea.
For me, I can’t think of a better gift to give kids in – or graduating from – high school, than the book “Love Your God With All Your Mind” by J.P. Moreland..
A friend of mine gave me this book a couple of years ago, and it has been pretty life changing for me. It emphasizes the importance of reason in the Christian faith. Put simply, “Christian” isn’t synonymous with “idiot,” but unfortunately, many Christians and non-Christians alike in our culture have contributed to the development of this generalization. When I was young, for example, my church looked down on me asking too many questions and made me feel like I was being rebellious if I challenged something that was taught. This is not healthy or scriptural. “Love Your God With All Your Mind” opened my eyes to the proper place reason should have in my life and in my faith, and it was like finding a part of myself that I had left unattended for far too long.
So I mentioned this book to her, and she was kind of unsure about giving kids a book, because “some kids aren’t readers.” My response to this was that I have nothing of value to give someone who does not read. I told her as much. I mean, what are the alternatives? Get them a bumper sticker? Get them some new clothes? How about some new movie from Hollywood? Maybe some candy? Maybe it’s just me and maybe I’m just strange, but I consider my books to be some of the most valuable things that I possess.
The reason, especially, that I think this book is so great for kids in – or graduating from – high school is because it prepares them for what is ahead. Many of them, in high school, but even more so in college, will face intense opposition to their faith, and many of them have just been taught to say, “Jesus loves you, brother, so I love you too, and I’ll pray that God speaks to your heart.” The unfortunate reality is that many “Christian” kids go off to college and loose their faith because they are intellectually unprepared, can’t reason through faulty arguments because they do understand how argument works, and do not have much confidence in the truthfulness of their beliefs.
So, the neat thing, I found out just yesterday, is that her husband did go out and buy all these kids that book. I am really, really glad about this, and think they have given these kids “the greatest gift” for graduation. This book, if taken seriously, can provide them with a foundation upon which one can built a strong and confident faith, and I am glad to know that I got to play a part in that. Now, I only hope these kids will read it!
Way to go bro!
As a (hopefully) more mature 26 year old Liberal Studies student at SJSU, I have recently dealt with a lot of the intellectual and critical abuse heaped upon Christians at secular universities. I started reading the book during the semester, and although I had to put it down and haven’t gotten back to it recently, it helped to open my eyes to the stagnation that tends to exist within the Christian subculture. It’s unfortunate that so many Christians respond to questions regarding their faith with statements like “because that’s what the bible says” or “I grew up learning that” or my total favorite “because my pastor said so.” this lack of thought has allowed the intellectual world to “dumb down” Christianity. I think that people like J.P. Moreland and other intellectual church leaders are doing great things by creating forums and providing tools for people to successfully interract with intellectuals at universities and the like. Way to go Matt! Let’s get these guys off to be prepared for the challenges and adventures that lie ahead.