August 23rd, 2005
 

So I wake up and read that Pat Robertson has called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (In Jesus' name I suppose?)

Then I read the comments of world-class scientist Herbert Hauptman. " At a recent scientific conference at City College of New York, a student in the audience rose to ask the panelists an unexpected question: "Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?" Reaction from one of the panelists, all Nobel laureates, was quick and sharp. "No!" declared Herbert A. Hauptman, who shared the chemistry prize in 1985 for his work on the structure of crystals. Belief in the supernatural, especially belief in God, is not only incompatible with good science, Dr. Hauptman declared, "this kind of belief is damaging to the well-being of the human race."

These stories amaze me, and dare I say, baffle me, but not nearly as much faithful culturewatcher as the continuing retreat to a parallel universe of Christians, who say they want to influence culture and yet voluntarily choose a sub-cultural existence.

In one day I received: 1) an e-mail from an intelligent, talented woman whose vision is to make "Christian television," (This while both the TV and the film industry are publicly gasping for air, sucking fumes due to their inability to create compelling product, while Pat Robertson uses 'christian TV' to advocate assassinations!) 2) An article outlining plans for new and better Christian video games. 3) An article announcing the critical shortage of talent in the game industry.

When C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien decided nobody was writing good children's stories any more, they set out to write the best ones anywhere and they did. It wouldn't have occurred to them to retreat to a default role as "Christian children's book writers." They were both Christians who could write and so they wrote the best stuff they could and brought it to the open market.

Lewis also wrote the best apologetics book he could, which resulted years later in the conversion of Francis Collins, scientist, director of the National Human Genome Project and Christian (somebody forgot to tell him you couldn’t be as good scientist and Christian!). " Dr. Collins was a nonbeliever until he was 27 - "more and more into the mode of being not only agnostic but being an atheist," as he put it. All that changed after he completed his doctorate in physics and was at work on his medical degree, when he was among those treating a woman dying of heart disease. "She was very clear about her faith and she looked me square in the eye and she said, 'what do you believe?' " he recalled. "I sort of stammered out, 'I am not sure.' " He said he realized then that he had never considered the matter seriously, the way a scientist should. He began reading about various religious beliefs, which only confused him. Finally, a Methodist minister gave him a book, "Mere Christianity," by C. S. Lewis. In the book Lewis, an atheist until he was a grown man, argues that the idea of right and wrong is universal among people, a moral law they "did not make, and cannot quite forget even when they try." This universal feeling, he said, is evidence for the plausibility of God. When he read the book, Dr. Collins said, "I thought, my gosh, this guy is me."

Had Lewis stayed on a sidetrack, Collins would not be a believer today (nor would Chuck Colson and countless others who trace their intellectual spiritual heritage to Lewis). Lewis made the cover of TIME magazine because his spiritual, intelligent and imaginative capacities transcended his academic confines; he rode his talent into the biggest arenas.

Here's the bottom line. You need to get really good at what you do. Then you need to get in the game in the big leagues. There is nothing wrong with minor league teams, except very few people see those games, and none of the players in the minor leagues would choose to stay there if they could get in the big leagues. (Except of course in the parallel universe of Christians who have been deceived into staying in the minor leagues and convinced they ought to be really content to be there!)

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, “these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have.” (For Now).

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