Paul and the Mercy That Saved Him

the New York Times a few weeks ago, there was a full-page ad from Columbia University advertising a program called Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, and it listed all the seven areas in which you can get a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, namely American Studies, Ancient Studies, East Asian Studies, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Medieval Studies, and South Asian Studies.

And Richard John Newhouse, in an editorial, spotted this and wrote and raised the question, where are Christian Studies? Why can't you get Master of Arts in liberal studies at Columbia University in Christian studies when you can get them Islamic studies and Jewish studies and Asian studies and so on why not Christian studies and he ponders for possible reasons and he ends up with this reason I'll read it to you Nervousness is caused by the awareness that there are an awful lot of people who really believe in Christianity the University is a cosmopolitan space and where religious traditions can be subjected to critical examination but are not to be taught as though they might be, well you know, true.

Even in religious studies departments, faculty members who are Hindus, Buddhists and believers in mystical crystals can quite openly profess their faith.

Muslims and usually Jews can too.

Nobody raises question about their proselytizing.

Not so with Christians.

The fear is that Christianity might be taken altogether too seriously.

So the absence of Christian studies in the Columbia program, it turns out, is not an insult to Christianity.

Those of the other faiths, however, might have reason to be offended.

Now, I think Newhouse is right.

We live in a land... where the rising tide of prejudice and discrimination against Christianity is a backhanded tribute.

It is an honor.

Giving Christianity a fair shake, a fair and open hearing, a serious focus of attention alongside other claims, makes secular people nervous because there are so many Christians who really believe it's true.

And not only true, but true for everybody.

They believe there's one holy God.

Everybody in the world has sinned against that God.

The one holy God has sent his one and only son to die for sinners.

Anybody in the world and everybody who believes on that one and only son may be reconciled to that one and only God and have eternal life with him forever or not and go to hell.

And millions of these Christians think it's the most loving thing in the world to pray and witness and live so as to persuade other people to stop being what they are and become Christians.

And this is absolutely offensive to the secular mindset and makes them nervous.

You can't have a Christian studies department.

There are too many of those people who take it seriously, believe it's true, try to persuade others that it's true.

You just can't have that sort of thing in the university.

You can only deal with detached issues as though nothing really mattered, which is a great tragedy in our great universities.

Well, this is the way it's been from the beginning.

the New York Times a few weeks ago, there was a full-page ad from Columbia University advertising a program called Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, and it listed all the seven areas in which you can get a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, namely American Studies, Ancient Studies, East Asian Studies, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Medieval Studies, and South Asian Studies.

And Richard John Newhouse, in an editorial, spotted this and wrote and raised the question, where are Christian Studies? Why can't you get Master of Arts in liberal studies at Columbia University in Christian studies when you can get them Islamic studies and Jewish studies and Asian studies and so on why not Christian studies and he ponders for possible reasons and he ends up with this reason I'll read it to you Nervousness is caused by the awareness that there are an awful lot of people who really believe in Christianity the University is a cosmopolitan space and where religious traditions can be subjected to critical examination but are not to be taught as though they might be, well you know, true.

Even in religious studies departments, faculty members who are Hindus, Buddhists and believers in mystical crystals can quite openly profess their faith.

Muslims and usually Jews can too.

Nobody raises question about their proselytizing.

Not so with Christians.

The fear is that Christianity might be taken altogether too seriously.

So the absence of Christian studies in the Columbia program, it turns out, is not an insult to Christianity.

Those of the other faiths, however, might have reason to be offended.

Now, I think Newhouse is right.

We live in a land... where the rising tide of prejudice and discrimination against Christianity is a backhanded tribute.

It is an honor.

Giving Christianity a fair shake, a fair and open hearing, a serious focus of attention alongside other claims, makes secular people nervous because there are so many Christians who really believe it's true.

And not only true, but true for everybody.

They believe there's one holy God.

Everybody in the world has sinned against that God.

The one holy God has sent his one and only son to die for sinners.

Anybody in the world and everybody who believes on that one and only son may be reconciled to that one and only God and have eternal life with him forever or not and go to hell.

And millions of these Christians think it's the most loving thing in the world to pray and witness and live so as to persuade other people to stop being what they are and become Christians.

And this is absolutely offensive to the secular mindset and makes them nervous.

You can't have a Christian studies department.

There are too many of those people who take it seriously, believe it's true, try to persuade others that it's true.

You just can't have that sort of thing in the university.

You can only deal with detached issues as though nothing really mattered, which is a great tragedy in our great universities.

Well, this is the way it's been from the beginning.