If Only “Answers In Genesis” Could Find Their “Answers In Jesus”

answersin genesisCan the “Culture War” in America, and the Christian response to it, get any  crazier.

CNN reports that the the evangelical Christian group Answers in Genesis will spend up to US$ 200,000 to display billboards in San Francisco, New York, and L.A. which read, “To All Our Atheist Friends: Thank God You’re Wrong”

The billboards are in a response to billboards sponsored by American Atheists which attempted to debunk Christianity.

Says AIG President Ken Hamm, “The Bible says to contend for the faith.  We thought we should come up with something that would make a statement in the culture, a bold statement, and direct them to our website.”

Leaving aside Hamm’s out of context use of Jude 1 (where contending with the faith was in reference to people joining the church and bringing in suspect practices) I suggest a better and much bolder statement to make:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:37

* What if Hamm and Answers to Genesis focused on directing people to Jesus rather than their website?

* What if they used that US$ 200,000 to help support the poor and needy in New York, San Francisco, and L.A. instead of engaging in silly “flame wars”?

* What if Ken Hamm invited Dave Silverman (President of American Atheists) out for a beer, they watched a baseball game together, and didn’t talk religion the whole night?  What if they really became friends?

* What if Answers in Genesis began to find their Answers in Jesus?

Then perhaps it would be a little more “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

If only…

5 comments

  • George Dougherty

    Not to mention that the science bashing AIG participates in doesn’t fly all that well in our modern society. They’re more likely to get athiests laughing at their “science” on the website than convince anyone of the truth of The Gospel.

  • Kyle

    God dammit, this is such a horrible, insane, obviously and overtly flawed idea. As if the world doesn’t already know what Genesis states. And as if nobody has ever tried to use scripture to magically win over a world that isn’t willing to settle with some random theologians opinion on scripture. I mean, come on. Really. I’ve seen so many completely flawed ideas from “Christians”, just like this one in my life, I cannot even begin to count them. I’m honestly starting to believe that there is a legitimate secret “Christian” organization somewhere that is literally TRYING to find the most effective ways to cause the world to THINK they hate Jesus.

    “If you Christians want to make us agnostics inclined to look into your religion, you must try to be more comfortable in the possession of it yourselves. The Christians I meet seem to me to be the very most uncomfortable people anywhere around. They seem to carry their religion as a man carries a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but at the same time it is very uncomfortable to have it. And I for one do not care to have that sort of religion.”

    – Hannah Whitall Smith

  • Saw your post on Facebook and was intrigued, yes this makes me very sad, I’m sure they have their reasons for doing things the way they do but it’s getting harder and harder to sympathize with these kinds of things. It’s hard when you become a big organization and you have to stay afloat, I’d rather just stay small and never get to that problem… haha

  • wish I knew what you meant when you talk about “directing people to Jesus” or finding something “in Jesus”. this all seems to boil down to pointing to the opinions/beliefs/statements/ideas of someone who is decidedly not Jesus. I’ll agree that these billboard responses aren’t doing any good, but I don’t see any reason to think they’re pointing to anything less substantive that what you’re pointing to. “Jesus”. I don’t know what you mean when you use that word. All I hear in response to that question are either dictionary definitions or subjective and unreliable/unverifiable ideas and personal opinions (that usually aren’t recognized as such), none of which make sense in the context of what you say here. I think this is the real problem with any Christian response to unbelievers. I do wholeheartedly agree with the idea of spending that money on the needy though. that makes a ton of concrete sense to me. but pointing to Jesus? I have no idea what that actually means.

    • Steve

      Thanks Brook. To answe your question “directing people to Jesus” means inviting them to join the citizenship of the Kingdom he proclaimed. To live a life with of love reinforced through mercy and forgiveness rather than one of power reinforced through violence and manipulations. To join a way of life that Jesus outlines in the Sermon on the Mount, which goes counter culture to America as well as any other nation of the world. Saying “directing people to Jesus” is just the short form of all that…

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