How to defend Christianity and still be a Christian

Those who know me, or got to know me fairly recently, will find it weird that I am writing on this topic: I am not exactly what one would call pious. But I had an intensely religious phase (i.e., Latin-praying, Hebrew/Greek Bible-quoting, EWTN-watching phase), and in the two years leading to Jubilaeum 2000 I was actively involved in online Catholic Apologetics. Although I am now quite removed from those discussions, I still consider those years as rich learning moments. I learned a lot about what Christianity is all about, had a deep understanding of Catholic doctrine and tradition, and engaged in many intellectually stimulating discussions, taking the side of the Catholic Church of course. I remember lively exchanges with a Lutheran pastor on the True Presence; an Orthodox deacon on the Filioque; and a Mormon missionary on the Hypostatic Union.

I don't do that anymore, but just for now I am going to put on my apologetics hat once more. Why? Because I see so many presumably well-meaning people "defend" Christianity in a very unchristian way. While I can just sit back and let them wallow in their inconsistencies and absurdities, my ethics demand that I at least try to educate them to raise the level of discourse. Although I was doing Catholic Apologetics back in the day, the pointers are fairly ecumenical; i.e., applicable to all Christians, Nicene or otherwise. So... apologetics hat back on [cue "Porcelain" by Moby].

So you want to defend Jesus Christ and His Church. Well, good. Not everyone feels the need to defend what they believe in and stand up for the Lord. Not every one is called to be an apologist, to speak out in defense of faith. But then again, every terrorist, bigot, and racist stands up for their belief and defends their faith. So it's not enough to be defending what you think is the truth. As a Christian, there is a proper-- a Christian-- way to defend Christianity. And it's not as simple as shooting out a Bible verse.

1. Don't shoot out Bible verses like bullets. We're very familiar with this situation. There's a discussion on homosexuality and someone dishes out Leviticus 18:22. Mention divorce and you're sure to hear Mark 10:9. A preacher makes a long, rambling speech interspersed with Bible verses here and there to support his thesis. This is called eisegesis and it is the wrong way to interpret the Bible. It takes verses out of their textual, historical, and spiritual context and injects the reader's own assumptions and presuppositions into the meaning of the verse. Doing so also opens you to an easy counterattack: if verse A is so great, how come you ignore verse B? If you use Leviticus 18:22 to support your stance against homosexuality, you will be hard pressed to explain why you don't isolate women on their menstrual period (Leviticus 15:19-24) or why you wear cotton-polyester shirts (Leviticus 19:19). Of course, there is a way to explain these "difficult" verses in the Bible and it is through a method called exegesis, which interprets Scripture within its proper context to avoid clouding God's word with the reader's own biases. That's the way one should quote the Bible, not play verse lottery with it.

2. The Bible wasn't written in English. This is a corollary to #1: the Bible you are using may or may not be an accurate translation of the original. If you've ever tried translating any foreign language into English, you will probably be very familiar with how difficult it is. And while it's hard enough when trying to translate a simple prose like a recipe or news article, it's much harder when the original contains a lot of allegories, figures of speech, and linguistic imprecision. And the Bible is just that. Its various books were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, each with their own cultural and linguistic complexities and nuances that do not have exact translations into English. And not all of them are as precise as English when it comes to tense, number, or time. Translators thus tend to inject their own biases (inadvertently or otherwise) in their translations. A common example is the translation of the Greek "paradosis" (something handed over): Catholic Bibles tend to translate this consistently as "tradition" (from the Latin "tradere") while Protestant Bibles translate this as "tradition" or "teaching" depending on context. This is not to say that your English Bible is unreliable. Just be aware that what you're reading in English is a translation of something written in another language and era, and to understand what it means you need to consider the language, context, and purpose for which it was written (see #1).

3. Don't misrepresent what you're defending. This should be basic, but you'll be surprised how many times I've seen would-be apologists fail at this. For example, "The Bible says that sex is only for procreation [insert Bible verse here]." Um, not really. "Only those who believe in Christ will be saved [insert Bible verse here]." Er, kinda but not exactly. "It's in the Bible so it must be true  [insert Bible verse here]." Well, yes, but.... Christian faith and morals have a lot of nuance and context, grounded on 2,000 years of philosophy and theology, and it is a misrepresentation to oversimplify. Know what the teaching is really about, what its grounds are, and what it means in this particular context.

4. Do your research. Saint Justin Martyr, one of the Church Fathers and an official Greek philosopher (i.e., authorised to wear a philosopher's robe), said that "All truth is Christian." Defending Christianity need not be afraid of science or history; if it is a fact, then it is Christian. If some scientific or historical fact does not square with what you think the Bible says, then chances are you are misunderstanding the Bible: this is actually the Catholic Church's official line regarding science (cf. Humani generis 1950, Truth cannot contradict Truth 1996). There is nothing to be worried about science or history, so do your research and do it using objective sources (that pamphlet you got from a church pew does not count). You do not want to ground your argument on some "fact" that turns out to be wrong. Get your facts straight.

5. Know your court. You can talk all you want about the 24-second rule, triple doubles, and 3-point plays, but if you're in a football field all you've accomplished is sound like a fool. Same thing when discussing religion with people who don't necessarily share your beliefs. Don't invoke papal infallibility when talking with a Mormon or a Lutheran. Don't expect everyone to fold before your curated Bible verse (see #1) when talking in a secular setting where not everyone is Christian. Having a proper discussion means being on the same field. Know what assumptions are acceptable. If you want to steer the discussion towards a Christian field, coax your audience towards it. Don't just dish out a Bible verse (again, see #1) when they're talking about a secular policy.

6. Shorter posts require longer thought. This wasn't an issue back in the late 1990s before Twitter and Facebook. Back then we had the time and space to think of our argument, do our research, and compose a proper essay. These days one may need to make a point in 140 characters. I've tried it a few times (obviously this is not one of them), but I found that shorter posts require longer thought. Each word needs to count. Drop "some" and you've just made a generalisation. Add "may" and you have added a bit of nuance to your statement. You do not want to write a short post only to go back and defend it in 5 paragraphs because you said something that is not entirely correct (see #3). Brevity is not an excuse for a lazy statement.

7. But most important is love.  Ok, this sounds cliche, but love is really the most important part of apologetics. Apologetics-- the defense of Christianity-- is not meant to show how much you know or how great your logic is. Apologetics is really just another way to be a Christian witness, similar to doing charitable work or leading Sunday worship. Apologetics is not about demolishing the other person's argument. While it is tempting to make snarky remarks, call names, or make sweeping condemnations, the second you do this you have lost the cause. Defending Christianity is not about you making a point. It is about showing Christ's love through your words.

Defending Christianity is not easy: doing everything above takes a lot of time and thought. But no one ever said defending Christianity-- properly-- was easy. You might think that theological research and Biblical exegesis are too much work for a Facebook post when all you want to say is how much you hate gay marriage or artificial contraception, but to do any less would be a disservice to the faith you hold dearly. It would be unchristian.