If you have seen my Facebook profile page you will see under the "people I admire", question I put out the names of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaffer, and Philip Yancey. Though each of these were born and died (except for Yancey as he is very much alive) years apart from another (Bonhoeffer and Lewis are closest in birthdays but not in death. Bonhoeffer died in 1945, Lewis died in 1963. In fact Lewis died on the same day as the Kennedy was assassinated, Schaeffer died in 1984, and as mentioned Yancey is still alive) There are many reasons I admire these particular man. All of them were/are Bible believing and God growing Christians and it showed in everything that they did/are doing. All of them were/are writers.All of them were at some point in their lives chastised by the Church (except for Lewis. His main opposition came from his fellow professors. However, Lewis in fact did not really like going to church. He especially disliked singing hymns!). I am not sure Yancey has spent much of his life ministering to children, but the others at one time or another spent a considerable amount of time with youth and children. Bonhoeffer actually believed that if you couldn't explain the Gospel to children and youth you probably would have trouble explaining it to anyone else. During WW 2 Lewis and his brother had a small group of children live with them during the bombing raids in London. He had a soft heart for a Downs Syndrome girl, and it was another little girl that sparked his writing the Chronicle of Narnia series. Shaeffer and his wife Edith started a children's Bible study material that is still used today.
The one thing that to me is so admirable in each of their lives is that believed that all people were made in God's image and because of that all people are worthy of dignity. I think that is something that Christians have struggled with since the beginning of the Church. The ancient nation of Israel struggled with it too. It can be difficult seeing your enemies, or people that dislike you for really no good reason to see them as someone that is made in God's likeness. But we seemingly have a very hard time loving people that are not Christians.
There are many that are frightened by the secular world and withdraw from it. Some just don't want to have much contact with others that do not believe in God like they do. In churches all over the U.S. we hear sermons or Sunday schools about "Godless people of the Democratic party and those that support them". Christian parents would never allow their kids go to a secular college or university because the faculty and many of the students are heathens. We just don't ever want to be tainted with the title of, "friend of sinners".
It is a sad irony that that was one of the titles that the Jewish religious leaders gave to Jesus. Of course it was not a complement. It was meant to demean and embarrass Jesus. It didn't as Jesus did not stop His ministry to "those nasty, Godless sinners!".
I am getting a little long here so I will be writing more about this sometime next week. So until then have a good one!
