Easy as ABC

We can work with unbelievers to fight liberal absolutism if we learn the basics of co-belligerency | Marvin Olasky

OVER THE PAST DECADE WORLD WRITERS HAVE ­regularly and justifiably praised Francis Schaeffer, who died 20 years ago after decades of promoting Christian-worldview thinking. Schaeffer was particularly ­powerful in pointing out the hopelessness of non-Christian thinking, and showing logically why men and women should turn to Christ. What happens, though, when many people don't—and yet, we need to work alongside them to counteract the aggressiveness of secular liberal absolutism?

Schaeffer noted the importance of developing "co-­belligerency" contacts in those situations—but didn't spell out how far to go. The problem is great, and not only because in a fallen world social entropy rules, with idealists becoming dictators and democracies turning into kleptocracies. A more basic problem is that what makes sense to those with faith in God will often seem like nonsense to others. When Paul in ancient Athens spoke of the resurrection, Areopagus auditors sneered—and it's often that way among today's academic elite.