Trade in Your Bible for Porn

Students of the Atheist Agenda club (excuse me, organization) at the University of Texas at San Antonio recently led a campaign to get students to trade in their Bibles or Korans for free porn. They called the initiative "Smut for Smut" stating that the violence in the religious texts are the causes of religious fighting and wars.

While I am not an advocate of the Koran (I believe all religions have some sort of truth in them in that they all usually teach Biblically true morals or lifestyles - love others, stand up against injustice, etc.; however, this is not to be confused with the assertion that all religions are True because it is not logically possible... see my explanation on this by clicking here), but I do not believe it to be smut, and I obviously do not consider the sexuality, violence or anything else in the Bible to be smut, either. (That's another conversation for another day)

Contrary to their organization's public statements, this campaign of theirs has very little to do with actually opening the channels of communication and instead is nothing short of a smear campaign against organized religion. Rather than write for pages as to my response, I will instead summarize my response in a few points and leave the door open for real conversation (feel free to speak your heart/mind by commenting on this post):

• Regarding their initiative and hope for dialogue: Logically and respectfully, if their organization's intention truly was to "talk," wouldn't it seem more polite and sincere to just sit down with Christians/Muslims instead of insult them?

• A question: Why put porn in people's hands in exchange for their Bibles (is it to be their new "Bible")? Based solely on this initiative, would it be safe to assume that atheist do have a god and authority, but instead of it being a person or entity, it is personal pleasure ("do what feels right")? Since most atheists argue it is possible to have a moral compass and not believe in God, wouldn't this smut for smut initiative speak against such a notion ("let's counter supposedly 'wrong' reading with more 'wrong' reading")? Granted, each of these is its own conversation, but are worthy questions none-the-less.

• A point for consideration: the reason the atheist agenda would seek to have people turn in their Bibles/Korans is so that those people are supposedly free to live however they want, with no authority over their lives other than themselves. Since the Bible speaks against sin (living against God), people are forced to make a choice when reading it. They can either (1) ignore those parts of the Bible (focusing on the parts they like better), (2) call those parts and morals of the Bible ancient and no longer relative to our culture, (3) turn their back altogether on (their) faith and embrace their new god - pleasure.

While I wholeheartedly stand against everything the Atheist Agenda stands for and speaks against, at least they know where the heart of the discussion is: God's Word. Now all they have to do is get it out of people's hands - and in this case they hope to replace it with other reading material.

NOTE: Having a Bible is not enough. Nor is it enough to just have one and flip it open in times of anguish. God's Word is our source of Truth, hope, love and understanding of life from Him who created it. The further people grow and walk from it the more confusing life gets and the more relative their truth becomes.

What do you think? Join the conversation. Click here to post a comment or question.

NOTE: The image above is not from the Atheist Agenda campaign. It is an atheist bus tour not related to the campaign I wrote about.
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"Religion is for Weak People"

EDITORIAL NOTE: Thank you for your patience, but I've taken an unannounced vacation the last two weeks from blogging due to my pastoral and personal schedule. I'm back now, though, and hope to be submitting daily posts again.

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers." (Jesse Ventura, former Governor of Minnesota)

This now famous/infamous line spoken by "The Gov" received much air time from the media in trying to stir the religious debate pot for ratings. Usually following the airing of the comment they'd host panels to discuss the controversial comment and invite religious people, atheists, authors, pastors, etc. in to "discuss" the comment in relation to politics, life and eternity.

While this quote is old news, what it represents is very relevant today still and will be until Christ returns.

Like Ventura, many claim religion is for weak-minded, poor, oppressed, or lonely people. Strong-minded, wealthy, powerful, famous/popular, and/or healthy people, however, have little to no need for God. Why would they? They are the makers of their own destiny. They are their own authorities. They are the authors of their own morals and ethics. They are their own creators (they create their own religions at will). Consequently, they are their own God.

Powerful people need no God (nor do they want one) because they are their own God and for them to answer to a deity higher than them would require an ounce of humility, need and emptiness. Today's culture decries need or brokenness as weakness. The reality of these attributes is that they remind of us of our place (we are not God... we are not all-knowing, all powerful, infinite, holy, eternal or ceaselessly creative) and our need for the infinite God of all.

James 4:7-10 tells us that we will spend our lives doing one of two things: (1) SUBMITTING to God, or (2) trying to BE GOD. Based on the Biblical description of who God is, it is a logical fallacy to think there can be more than one God (or someone equal to Him). Powerful people, though, have no need for this God to save them or aid them (that is, of course, until something happens in their life that leaves them broken beyond words - such as loss of family/friends, tragedy, etc.) and no need to worship God because their attention, drive, motivation, desire and hope is all directed in one direction: themselves.

PARENTS: Do your lives represent one that is bent toward God or bent toward being your own God? One that not only talks about having a need for God to save you, but that demonstrates a lifelong allegiance to this One, True God? Our children and teens find brokenness and need a lot more appealing when they see humility lived out before them.

Want to join the conversation? Click here to comment or ask a question!
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