In 2009, Marilyn Sewell, the retired minister of the First Unitarian Church of Portland Oregon, interviewed Christopher Hitchens, one of the most famous atheists of the time. Unitarians do not believe in the Trinity or hell or a literal resurrection. Hitchens was an atheist and didn’t believe in God or an afterlife.
Hitchens
died of cancer in December 2011 but at the time of the interview he was riding a wave of popularity from his best-selling book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
This interview is especially interesting because it’s between a very popular atheist and a liberal minister. At one point in the interview the liberal
minister asked Hitchens if her Christianity was any different in his opinion. Check out a small portion of the dialogue:
Marilyn Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal
religion?
Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..." Ephesians 1:7
I'm amazed that it took an atheist, to say what many people who call themselves Christians just don't even acknowledge.
My two questions for you today:
- "What Biblical evidence do you have for the hope that you have in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice?
- What personal evidence do you have that you relationship with Jesus Christ
exists?
I'd love to hear what you have to say about this topic. It always blesses me to hear The Open Word subscriber family respond with their viewpoints. It often gives me a perspective that I hadn't yet considered.
Have a great day and God bless!
