Cutting to the Chase

Sometimes an outsider sees things more clearly than those on the "inside." The outsider has no reason to be diplomatic; they can be blunt, even rude, and say what they think needs to be said.

In The Portland Monthly for 27 February 2010, British atheist Christopher Hitchens was interviewed by a Unitarian minister named Marilyn Sewell. Hitchens told her what he really thought.

Sewell: "I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement. ... Do you make a distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?"

She wasn't expecting his response.

Hitchens: "I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian."

Their interview was conducted over a dinner meal and Dr. Sewell (http://www.marilynsewell.com/) says that as he continued to drink, Hitchens became increasingly ascerbic and insulting. That happens sometimes when people drink.

Sewell's accessment of Hitchens was that he knows very little about religion and that his responses should "not be confused with thoughtful discourse." I disagree. His responses may have been what they were because he knows what he believes, why he believes it, and exactly who he was talking to. And, there is a very real possibility, given the pointedness of what he said, that he was prompted to speak by the Holy Spirit. (See my 20 February 2010 post, "Listen to the Holy Spirit.')