I have been attending the Alpha course with my buddy Fauzia (aka F-Dawg) for the last three weeks. I am a Christian, F-Dawg is not, although her mom is a recent convert and to say that poor F-Dawg has received her fair share of bible-bashing is probably the understatement of the year. The course has been cool so far and the group sessions are mostly dominated by F-Dawg and I debating issues that we have debated on numerous occasions before – so, pretty much, the other ten people may as well be paintings on the wall. Occasionally somebody makes a comment and very rarely is it relevant to the debate we are having. Last week F-Dawg and I were chit-chatting about the fact that Christians preach that Christianity is the only way. She cannot accept the narcissism and arrogance of this view and wants to know why all religions are not correct. Why is Christianity the only right one? It is a valid point and, of course, makes many Christians uncomfortable as exemplified by the half-assed response from the Christians in our Alpha group: there is some truth in all religions. That’s it. That’s the whole response. I got so mad that I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my chest and splatter all over my increasingly red face. Here’s the reason: in a world that preaches relativism, Christians are afraid to say that what they believe is right. So they pussy-foot around it, not wanting to chase people away, by skirting the truth of the matter. Yes, there is some truth in all religions but the whole point is that Christianity is the truth. The whole irony is that Alpha is an evangelical course designed to show non-believers the truth of Christianity – so when confronted by someone at Alpha who wants to know why Christianity is right and other religions are wrong, to bullshit around the issue is like a slap in the face. (more…)