How Not to Be a Super Villain

BAM! ZING! POW!

It seems like some Christians who try to defend their faith want to feel like superheroes. They think they’ve found that one perfect argument that will make them invincible, an argument that they can swing around and—WHAM!—leave those ignorant heathen too stunned to respond.

If you don’t believe me, find almost any popular video of Christian music on Youtube and read the comments. Some will make you facepalm.

The problem with this superhero mentality is that it does more harm than good. That’s right: Christians who take that approach are actually more like—gasp!—super villains!

You see, it’s not enough to be right. There’s no point in telling someone something you want them to believe unless you… really want them to believe it. And that takes a little more tact than some people are willing to use.

Aristotle wrote in The Art of Rhetoric (Book I, Part 2, Paragraph 3),

  

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses. [emphasis mine]

So if our character, or how we’re coming across to others, is so central to changing someone’s mind, can we agree to stop slinging around “zinger” arguments? Might we even be willing to listen to why someone else believes what he does, or treat him with the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4)? 

Let’s put away our capes and stop trying to save the world with conceited clichés and one-liners. Look instead to how God saves a soul, and point that person to His kindness by being kind ourselves.