Is that secular enough for ya?

The joyous crowds of rosy-cheeked, Andy-Williams-listening shoppers have given us our first trampling of the year, thus marking the official start of the “holiday season.”

But what about those slightly less perilous hazards you are likely to encounter this Christmastide, namely your atheist brother-in-law and his smart aleck son, who’s completed one whole semester of college and is wearing his newfound agnosticism with a little too much confidence for your liking?  How about the major news magazines or the TV networks, always ready to debunk the historical accuracy of the Christmas narrative? And what about those helpful souls who are against all Christmas traditions?  (As if we didn’t know He wasn’t born on December 25th.)  Be of good cheer!  There’s help available.

God, The Bible and all that

A nice free e-book is available for you here from the Why Faith? website.  It’s a 44-page PDF on the historical reliability of the New Testament.  It will give you some good ammunition.  Got more time to read, or got an atheist who’s more intellectually honest?  Try F. F. Bruce‘s venerable but still very valuable The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?.  Or perhaps his The Canon of Scripture for all the people who read Dan Brown.  Timothy Keller, described as the most successful evangelist in New York City, has a well-received and well-selling book called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

Darwin, blah, blah, blah

They didn’t know a lot about biology back in the 1860′s.  For crying out loud – they were just learning to wash their hands before surgery.  Have you ever read anything that shows what we now know about the complexity of biological systems or the unique conditions on our busy little earth that make it all possible?  Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution will help you drive atheists nuts.

Other religions – which usually translates to: Christianity is awful!

Gosh, we’ve never heard this one before, either.  You mean there are other religions?  People who don’t know about Christ?  Come on!  Anyway, you may want to tell your friend that it so happens not all of these religions actually are the same or think the same thing about God and humankind.  Did you know that?  Maybe your workmate doesn’t.  Christianity is special, it seems (no jihad commanded by founder of religion for example), and has been a great boon to people.  Get someone a copy of Dinesh D’Souza’s What’s So Great About Christianity.

What about people who are more kindly disposed?

Have a friend who wants to know more and has no real ax to grind?  You may want to try Rick Warren‘s new book The Purpose of Christmas.

How about Christian spoilsports?

There’s always one guy ready to call your tree a Babylonian Bush, or remind you that the Puritans (who were smarter than we are and prayed a lot ) banned the whole thing altogether.  <sigh>  When it comes to this I can refer you to two sources your believing friend may see as a tad secular. First, give him a copy of the 1951 version of Dickens‘s A Christmas Carol. If that won’t work, then by all means go for the big guns and make him watch Charles Schulz‘s A Charlie Brown Christmas.  We can all see so much of ourselves in it.

It’s good to have a reason for the hope that lies within us – and we’re commanded to in any event.  But the best advertisement for Christ at Christmas is a real Christian.