You’ll be seeing this one flash around the Internet, I’ll bet. I just got it and read it (thanks, Christina!) and want you to see it, too. Imagine: an atheist finding that Christianity changes people–individuals, families, and cultures–for the better, and not just through its helpful charities or basic decency (which lots of atheists manifest too, of course), but through its religion and thus through its–yes, he actually uses the word–evangelism.
Bravo to Matthew Parris for the guts to break ranks and acknowledge what other thoughtful people have observed, whether they could explain it according to their own worldview or not.
And let’s be careful, those of us who do believe in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be respectful of the struggles of an honest man like this, careful not to crow (and thereby humiliate ourselves as quite unlike the poised, quiet Christians he so admires in Africa), and determined to do what our Lord told us to do: “let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5)– as Matthew Parris has done.
