Dear Maurice Williamson,
I hear you are having some troubles in the media at the moment. Apparently there are moral questions swirling around you about honest disclosure, potential abuse of power, unduly influencing the police in favour of a person who donated money to you, and so on.
Don’t let judgmental people like Prime Minister John Key discriminate against you any longer. Such people clearly believe they can make moral judgments about what is appropriate and impose them onto you. Stand up to the bigots.
Here is my advice to you.
Call a press conference and do the following:
- Point out that the moral rules about lying and bribing being an abomination come from that archaic book, The Bible. While you are at it, make a sarcastic jab about how some people think you will go to hell for doing such things, then mock this belief with silly jokes about the physics of hell.
- Observe that there was recently a rainbow in New Zealand somewhere and opine that this proves that God approves of your actions.
Do this and I am certain you will be hailed as a man of great moral insight. All will agree that you have given a decisive answer to the serious moral questions raised about your conduct. Perhaps David Farrar will blog about it on Kiwiblog, you’ll get offers to stand for Governor in several states in America, and someone in Hollywood might even offer you a spot on their show to obtain your insight.
We all know, after all, that serious moral questions can be adequately set aside by engaging in these kind of tactics, and given your well known moral insight and wisdom, that’s all you need to do. You have led the nation utilising such wisdom and discernment in the past, I am sure you can do it again.
All the best,
Matthew Flannagan
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
if only there was some way to get this letter to a much wider audience, though i despair about said audience understanding
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
Maurice, you are treading on very shaky ground when you mock God. Is your demotion purely coincidence? I don’t think so.
The idea of Christianity being shelved into “just another narrative” will never happen. The Lord Jesus has a good number throughout the world who are full of the Holy Ghost and who preach the Word of God (without apologies or apologetics) with boldness and with the simplicity of sincerity and truth.
God gives testimony to such preaching with signs and wonders.
“Preach the Word,” Paul told Timothy. Don’t argue with unbelievers over it, don’t give them an opportunity to argue, unless they are sincerely wanting the truth.
It isn’t too hard to discern whether they want truth or not.