Be pugnacious

December, 2006, following my 62nd birthday in September, I was told that the biopsy showed I had cancer. As a pastor I had stood with many people in hospitals when the news was revealed that they or a beloved family member had cancer. I had watched as cancer had taken my Dad at age 62. The decision was easy to make as to the treatments that I would undergo to rid my body of cancer. These last five years have been challenging, to say the least. The great news that through all of the treatments and rehab that was necessary, today I am cancer free. One of my doctors had said that we would know within five years if the treatments were successful. I am sharing this personal journey with you today because Thursday night of last week, one of the most infamous, pugnacious, and proud atheist in modern times, Christopher Hitchens, died at age 62 of cancer. Many have written about and reacted to the death of the world renowned intellectual since the announcement of his death.

As an ethicist, and one who writes in the field of apologetics, I have read much of what Hitchens has written in the last several years. He was never one to let his feelings be kept quiet. Many who knew him best say that Hitchens liked nothing more than to pick a good fight arguing his position of social justices (or injustices) as opposed to what he saw as a feeble attempt to intimidate people into believing in some “being” out there somewhere called God. I confess I never read articles by Hitchens that did not challenge me as to my beliefs and also that I did not come away with anger building inside of me. This coming from one who was so gifted with words and with superior intellect, yet so blinded to the reality that there is a God. It has been said of Hitchens that those of us who read his works felt we knew him because he kept nothing of himself or what he thought hidden. I never met him personally, but felt after reading his articles, and seeing him in various interviews that he was one of the most open people I had ever encountered. Hitchens and my Dad were the same age when they died, 62. Both of them impacted my life. That statement might sound strange to some people. Daddy was a believer in God, and Hitchens never would consider any possible approach that would have proven to him there is a God.

There would be some people who would pick up the argument that the faith my Daddy had, that there is a God, was simple faith. Upon further study of the reality of faith and trust in The God that is where we all must come back to, a simple faith. It is not intellectual prowess that brings us to the realization of there being a God, but it is simple faith. As we approach Christmas Day at the beginning of next week, even though some have tried hard to turn the observance to a secular theme, the reality is that Christmas is the celebration of God becoming man in the person of Jesus who was born to a virgin woman and placed in a lowly stable feeding trough. Amidst all the family traditions, church musicals, toys, and gifts that will be exchanged none of that would be possible had there not been the gift from God to man of His Son on that first Christmas.

Once a year at this time I take a break from writing about politics, cultural and world events to remind my readers of the significance of what is taking place during this season known as Christmas. The entire Christian world joins together in celebrating the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. It would be wonderful to be able to keep that Christian and Christmas spirit throughout the year.

Among the politically correct there is horror to think a person would be so open about their faith in God. We are seeing the reaction of the sports world to the testimony of Tim Tebow as an example of how difficult it is for people to accept the reality of there being a God. Those of us who believe in God need to be as pugnacious as the Christopher Hitchens of the world in expressing our belief in God daily.

Ray Newman Copyright December 2011
First published in The Barrow County News, Winder, GA., Wednesday December 21, 2011