Dear Yuyutsu,

I also think you are a good person, but, in addition, I think that God is nothing more than a creation of the human imagination like unicorns and the tooth fairy.

Sells,

As you can see, some people’s reaction to (the title of) your sermon (which I understand means that secular humanism evolved from Christianity in a direction you do not appreciate - neither do I) is similar to some others’ reaction to the darwinian “humans and chimpanzees have common ancestors”: in both cases some people understand this as offending their a priori held worldview beliefs (or unbeliefs).

The question remains whether this is an appropriate pulpit for giving such an explicitly Christian sermon.

By the way, I think emotional outbreaks - whether expressed by references to Soviet sponsored trolls or mumbojumbo - never contribute to a constructive exchange of views and ideas.

Not much to add here -- except to point out perhaps, that China, which has never had a tradition of Christianity, is progressing towards enlightened secular prosperity much faster than the West did at a similar stage in its development, and much, much faster than those nations still dominated by theocratic institutions like those in the Middle East. The facts are against you, Peter -- but you already knew that, I think.

George,
I am not sure what you are saying. Are we to keep the gospel within the church? One of the consequences of secularisation is that preaching never reaches the pubic square. Should I desist from writing here altogether?

Sells,

All I was trying to say was that one should adjust to the anticipated audience the way one presents one’s arguments in defence of one’s (Christian) position. I indeed think that in our age - it was different a few decades ago - preaching belongs to the church i.e. where the audience can be assumed to have some Christian worldview “prerequisites” (otherwise they would not have come to your church).

George,
As I have said before, I have a long list of people who subscribe to my articles and who mostly appreciate them. Therefore I feel no compunction to aim at the commenters who seem beyond reason.