Answer a Question with a Question

I just read an email devotional that posed the following dilemma.

“A chaplain for a major league baseball team lost his position and was publicly excoriated for nodding his head affirmatively in answer to a question from a ball player. The question? Do people who don’t accept Jesus Christ end up in Hell?

“The media reported it, the team owner suspended the chaplain and apologized profusely to the public; and major league baseball wrung its hands and pledged to re-visit the idea of chaplaincy in baseball.

“How should the chaplain have answered that question?”

The writer of the devotional proposed that we answer with Jesus’ words not ours. In other words: All I have to go on is what Jesus said himself, “No one comes to to Father but through me.”

Good answer in my book. But an answer is not always the best way to answer a question. As Jesus shows us, often a question is better than an answer, especially in a “politically charged” situation. I’m not suggesting that we evade the issue, but rather make sure we understand what the first questioner is really asking and why is he/she asking it. Another reason is that questions often make people think for themselves. Quick answers often polarize people in their shallow thinking.

How would I have answered that question? I would have first asked, “What do you think?” and then responded from there. Ultimately I would have tried to get back to the issue, but formulated it in a different way. I really like how C.S. Lewis framed this issue. He said that ultimately there are two types of people in the world: those who say to God, “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “Thy will be done.” The real question is who is Jesus. If he is God as he says he is, then that’s really the question. If you believe that he is, then you’ve answered your own question, because he did say, “I am the way the truth and the life and no one come to the Father except through me.”
To read more about this kind of “Socratic” evangelism see chapter 11 in Going Public with Your Faith.

Express Your Faith . . . Wisely

There’s a fine balance when it comes to speaking of faith in the workplace. When we express faith too forcefully we can expect a negative response from people we would love influence positively. Never express your faith on the other hand and no one knows why you’re different. Theologian D. Elton Trueblood concluded that people who declare they can witness to their faith purely by their deeds are insufferably self-righteous—no one is that good.

Peter gives excellent advice to anyone wanting to strike a balance and have a spiritual influence on friends and co-workers. “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Peter’s words give us a clue that there are times to keep our mouths shut. Aggressive evangelists zero on the word “always” while sometimes overlooking the fact that there is a condition given. We are to be ready to give an answer to “everyone who asks.” There are times when it’s appropriate and times when it’s inappropriate to talk about our faith. Obviously, it takes wisdom to know the difference.

A few years ago, I talked with a professor at a major university that had a reputation for enforcing a “politically correct” environment and was less than warm toward evangelical theology. I was curious to know how he negotiated the conflict between his faith and the pressures of academia. I said to him, “I guess you have to be careful about sharing your faith here.”

He looked at me with a puzzled expression. “No,” he said, “I don’t have to be careful.” He paused. “But I do have to be wise.”

I got the point.