Perhaps you’ve noticed the trend. A rising tide of books, television shows, and interviews featuring an odd assortment of academics, social misfits, comedians, and professional cynics. Their unifying theme? Atheism. Despite their surface disparities, they have this in common: they don’t believe in God, they think religious faith is a dangerous thing, and they insist the world would be better if only we’d wash our hands of outmoded superstitions, violent creeds, and repressive moralities.

They also have this in common: they are not timid in their disbelief. They proclaim it and boast in it and advocate it in the most provocative, in-your-face ways. They shout their atheism from the rooftops.

Nothing New

Atheism isn’t new, of course. There has always been something perversely gratifying about shaking a fist in the face of God. Nietzsche. Voltaire. Huxley. Hemingway (who famously claimed, “All thinking men are atheists”). Atheism has long been the intellectual’s retreat, the antinomian’s refuge, the disappointed’s last resort.

What’s new, though, is the popularity of atheism. There is an openness to—even an eagerness for—people who shrilly advocate a universe without God. Atheists have an audience. Their books are selling like indulgences. Their shows are rolling in ratings. Disbelief has gone mainstream. Atheism is suddenly chic.

Turn on the TV. Real Time’s Bill Maher (whose deep theological insights have been finely honed by years of stand-up comedy) will not let an opportunity pass to belittle people of faith and ridicule the God of the Bible. Penn and Teller—magicians turned social commentators—profanely (and blasphemously) pour their contempt on the notion of God and the knuckle-draggers who worship him. Listen as the audience laughs and hoots and applauds its agreement. Atheism is fun. Atheism is the new cool.

Here is a selection of titles published in the last two years that are available at your corner bookstore and have received critical acclaim and commercial success: The End of Faith by Sam Harris; Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person’s Answer to Christian Fundamentalism by David Mills and Dorian Sagan; The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins; Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam by Michel Onfrey (apparently, an equal opportunity atheist); God: the Failed Hypothesis by Victor Stenger; and last but not least, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens—currently the third best selling book on Amazon.com. The tone of these books is unremittingly hostile, abusive, derisive, and judgmental. And the number of people who are reading them shows that atheism sells. Atheism is hip. Everybody’s doing it.

What’s a knuckle-dragger to do in times like these?

Lament the brokenness of our world? Sorry. The world’s been broken for a long time now, and probably in much worse ways at certain periods in the past. If Paul didn’t take refuge in hand-wringing at the shape of his Nero-dominated world, we don’t get to lament a few misguided books and comedy shows.

Boycott the publishers and supporting advertisers of these blasphemous works? Write protest letters to parent companies? Make videos to warn the faithful about this attack on God? Maybe. Although you’ll forgive me for wondering whether boycotts and protest letters and cautioning videos are properly part of the armor of God.

Declare jihad on the infidels? Oops. Sorry. Wrong knuckle-draggers.

The Christian Response

What if (and I’m just spit-balling here) we determined to love our enemies? To pray for those who “despitefully use” us? Read their books and mourn over the disappointment and disillusionment they represent? Watch their shows and pray God to forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing? Write them to confess that, as the people of God, we have so often failed to be the people God has called us to be? Offer to buy them coffee if ever they’re in town?

What if we matched vitriol with confession, ridicule with kindness, abuse with blessing, judgment with grace? What if we refused to be frightened by the hostility of their tone or the size of their followings? What if we saw this “trend” as merely the latest attempt of powers beyond to turn a war that has already been won. What if we claimed the confidence of victors and decided that mercy best becomes us?

We so easily give ourselves permission to ignore the teachings of Jesus when faced with difficult circumstances or people. The more threatened we feel, the more likely we are to adopt less-than-Christ-like responses. Is the faith under attack? Then we feel justified in pulling out the big guns!

But when we act like the enemy in order to defeat the enemy, there is a very real danger that we will become the enemy. Better to trust the power of love and show it even to atheists. They may not believe in God. But they can’t deny that. |L

Dr. Tim Woodroof is senior minister of Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells