A new pro-humanist and anti-God advertising campaign that criticizes the Bible and Christianity has been launched. Christianity is not the only religion that is being aggressively campaigned against, with the Quran also being regularly challenged.
In the advertisements, excerpts from both Christian and Muslim scriptures are cited in a negative light to illustrate the humanist approach on issues like women, homosexuality and war as being better.
In one particular advert, an actor portraying a pastor cites 1 Timothy 2:12 saying, "I do not allow women to teach or have authority over a man. She must be silent." This is then followed by a quote from 19th century freethinker Robert Ingersoll, stating that "the rights of men and women should be equal and sacred" and that "marriage is a perfect partnership." The video clip has been posted on the "Consider Humanism" campaign website.
A Christian apologist at Biola University, Dr. Craig Hazen, responded to this campaign by pointing out that the ads take both the Bible and Quran out of context, and thus don’t present an accurate representation of either religion. Hazen cited Ephesians as an example, saying the Bible is not misogynist but teaches that husbands should love their wives like Christ loved the church.
"Men are supposed to love their wives as Christ loved the church and giving themselves over to death for her," stated Hazen. "That doesn't sound like subjugation but that sounds like deep love anyone would want."
"They are simply assuming the Bible is misogynist and homophobic without doing the careful work that Bible historians do," added the scholar. "They are trying to set the rules for the discussion but they don’t actually want to hear the arguments."
Hazen emphasized that humanists should not interpret the Bible without correct training in reading and understanding it, but he conceded that many Christians were just as biblically illiterate thus creating problems in engaging with advertisements like these.
"Unfortunately, it's effective," commented Hazen. "It's an indictment on general Christian education but it turns out we've got the goods in terms of excellent thinking and response to campaigns like this."
Hazen concluded that it is vital the schools like Biola train more "clear thinking" Christians to defend their faith in the public square.