The lies we tell ourself

According to Nick Jahn of Portage, Christians are suffering a period of religious persecution. You see, last year he put on a “Critical Mass” day full of Christian activies and music at Pauquette Park. The event was a failure. He blames Atheists of course. Ah… whatever.

Looking a little deeper, one can sense that 18-year-old Nick might be blame shifting, and managing the message, in case his second attempt at a day of smoke, drug, and alcohol free musical bliss is a failure. Nick was quoted as saying:

"In general, society looks down on religion, saying don't push your religion on me. But they're pushing their religion on me --the atheist part of society. Atheism is a religion too, that says there is no God. It's a two way street."

OK, he is an 18 year old kid, so I will cut him some slack. First, atheism is not a religion. The 3% of Americans who claim to be atheists simple deny the existence of god. Most of us do not care that much about what Christians do, as long as they are not trying to mold us in their image. There is no two-way street here. It’s an eight lane freeway with a few stranded atheists on the meridian. Your problem is not atheists; it is the great mass of the un-churched. That segment of population who are not practicing Christians and who do not care enough to define themselves as atheist or agnostic. They are the MTV-Sportsline-CSI generation, too caught up in self-interest to attend a Christian music event or to explore their lack of faith beyond reading the Da Vinci Code. They sure as hell don't care what you do.

If people do not attend the festival it is because it was poorly planned, poorly booked, or poorly advertised – or all three. If by some miracle the apathetic un-churched masses show up for your event, the music had better be technically perfect and good, or the fickle public will leave. I suggest a little SRV, played by an all-Christian band of course, followed by a recreation of Jesus’ first miracle. You might succeed in putting on a good show and saving a few souls at the same time.

Of course, if you want to get a few Christians together in a park on a Saturday morning to slap each other on the back and talk about how the Atheists are bringing you down, have at it. However, you are lying to yourself, and that is not exactly honest now is it?

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