Unashamed?

Unbroken, the story of Louis Zamperini’s World War II survival ordeal adrift in the sea as well as at the brutal hands of sadistic Japanese guards in a Pacific internment camp, has hit the theaters to the gathering sound of cinematic acclaim.  Yet the movie makers have gutted the story of any of Mr. Zamperini’s faith in Jesus Christ. And that is a falsification because what made the man so indomitable was not that he was a tough man, but that he was a tough man absolutely convinced of the promises of God in Jesus Christ.

I recently attended a symphony of Brahms’ Requiem. The accompanying playbill included a professor’s written biography of the composer, saying that Herr Brahms really did not believe in the promises of Jesus Christ whose words of eternal life and promise of heaven are used throughout the Requiem.  “He only wrote the piece for money.”

I was flabbergasted!  Johannes Brahms was a lifelong Christian, devout in his biblical world view, pious in his morals, charitable in giving. So why would a music professor try to trivialize his life and faith?

Indeed, there is a growing wave of hatred of God in our culture. The things of Jesus Christ are intentionally edited out of movies, concerts, news, and conversation as if He is an embarrassment.

Did you notice that in the ebola epidemic the frontline caregivers were Christian missionaries? That’s right. The doctors and nurses first on the scene were believers in Jesus Christ—there to serve.

Historically, Christians have more often than not run to suffering instead of away from it. Witness: Oxford Orphanage, Baptist Hospital, inner city relief missions, and more, all begun by Christians, by the church —and not by smug rationalists!

Don’t get me wrong. As a minister of over forty years I have seen Christian failure, pious cussedness, moral let-down. But in the vast sweep of human history the last 2,000 years it is the glory of Jesus Christ that His people have been so helpful.

Who started the great universities to combat ignorance? Who began Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth, Emory, Davidson and Furman? Christians.  What helped compose the music of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Schubert, and Mendelssohn? The faith of Christ.  Who worked to end slavery? Christians like William Wilberforce and John Newton.  Did you know that the government of the United States with its checks and balances of power is copied from the biblical presbyterian form of church government?  And what do the poetry of T. S.  Eliot, the painting of Rembrandt, the plays of Shakespeare, the histories of Toynbee, and the fables of JRR Tolkien all have in common? Their creators are all Christians.

So, why hate God who gave us these glories? Why be ashamed of Jesus Christ who gave us such men as Brahms, and Zamperini?  Indeed, why? It makes no sense.

The Reverend Stephen Crotts is pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Charlotte Court House, VA. He is also the director of the Carolina Study Center, Inc., a campus ministry, located in Chapel Hill, NC. Pastor Crotts may be reached at carolinastudycenter@msn.com.