How to Talk to a Christian

I have been pondering this topic since I began blogging and discussing issues on various political discussion forums. It seems to me that non-Christians genuinely cannot comprehend the mind of a Christian. There are many intolerant--near persecutory statements about Christians everywhere and my sense is that this persecution is growing. This does not surprise me as it does not surprise most Christians. Truly, there is an outrageous idea of Christian scholarship, as put by a Christian historian. It is as he asks in almost rhetorical fashion, "What is it about the dominant academic culture that teaches people they must suppress reflection on the intellectual implications of their faith?"

Before even beginning witha "How To" readers need to consider two sets of principles. These are not all the possible principles but they are a start for an honest discussion:

First Principles:

• "Even those who profess to be relativists treat other viewpoints as inferior to their relativism and try to convince others of their viewpoint. Indeed sometimes they are rather dogmatic."
• There is an idea that a Christian should not use any of his or her Christian principles in deciding anything political. Indeed, Christian politicians should be absolutely silent. This is like saying, "no gay person should teach gay studies, no feminist should teach the history of women and no musician should be allowed to teach an instrument that she herself does not play."
• Individuals often say that ones social location, orientation, family upbringing etc..relate to how one learns and plays a legitimate role in their intellectual discourse. However, strongly held religious views under the same pretext are extinguished and put off as foolish, irrelevant, false, based on lies, based on a book of contradiction, etc. I wish everyone approached their bias with "truth in advertising". "People do not benefit from those who pose as neutral observers when in fact their interpretations reflect a particular point of view."
• It is interesting that if we start with the presupposition that the universe is created by an "intelligent" being (I will call him God) it changes everything in the way one thinks about reality. But the popular culture seems to operate on the complete opposite statement without permitting any setting to discuss its antithesis. They say, "we will assume there is no "intelligence", so what can we make of reality." Despite calls for diversity, dialogue in the popular culture centers solely around purely "secular" terms. It seems that diversity has its own intolerance.

People fear the political right mostly because they do not understand it. In some ways the political right has become an over-correction of the secular humanism of the 20th century. But these fears fuel the prejudice against Christians and their views on social, political and spiritual order which leads us to a few realities in the second principles:

Second Principles:

1. The vast majority of Christians are committed to the rules of liberal politics in the public arenas. Almost all have adopted the virtues of tolerance and civility. But it is my belief that intolerance has now shifted to point directly at Christians. Christians have used the system to raise a collective voice just as all groups do and for this we are persecuted and told to return to the First Principles and all their errors.
2. Christian groups are hopelessly divided on a number of issues as is clearly visible by reading any yahoo.com discussion thread. There are some mainstream Christian ideas that speak to the dogma that all Christians believe...but then you have the liberalized voices keeping the balance. There is no fear of a United Theocracy of America.

So with that forward how does one talk to a Christian?

1. Know the Christian basics and by this I mean a) Jesus is the Son of God. b) The Bible is God's Word. c) All have sinned and fall short of God's Law, including the Christian with whom one is speaking. d) Jesus died for mankinds sin. e) Jesus forgives whomever wants to be forgiven and trusts in Him as Lord. f) Eternal Life in Heaven is the result of this relationship. g) Jesus is the only way. Knowing that these things are in the back of a Christian's mind will help one get some understanding where a Christian may be coming from. However, if one does not believe these things complete understanding of where a Christian is coming from may not be possible.
2. There are Christians who are smart, some very smart, some not so smart just like there are non-Christians who are smart, some very smart, and some not so smart. We will always run into someone who knows more than we do about a subject or a lot of subjects.
3. Some Christians are very outspoken while others are not..don't assume that person you respect as "intelligent" is a non-Christian.
4. Use the same tolerance definition and be sure to contrast this definition with acceptance. Tolerance: Open-mindedness, patient, fair, considerate Acceptance: Willingness to receive, affirmative answer to an invitation, agreeing. Tolerating something and accepting something are two different things.
5. Recognize that a Christian in spite of his or her beliefs, believing and knowing themselves to be capable of continued sin...probably will when emotions run hot.

There is obviously much more that could be written but here is at least a start.