Sir, – David Adams (Opinion, April 5th) says: “There are undoubtedly good Christians (I even know some), but unfortunately they are few and far between.” There are more than two billion Christians on this planet. Even if we grant that many of those are nominal Christians, there are still tens of millions or hundreds of millions of people alive today who strive to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Mr Adams believes that the “good people” among this multitude are “few and far between”. To whom is he comparing them? If someone were to write that good Asians or good Jews or good feminists were “few and far between”, would The Irish Times print that statement?
In his scattershot attack, he condemns Christianity for everything from the Holocaust to the American penal system to the supposed fact that Jews are “still widely despised” “across all Christian denominations” (how exactly does he know this?). The whole article was bizarre, hysterical and out of place in a national newspaper.
In his final flourish, Mr Adams declares “Jesus of Nazareth gave his life in vain.” If you don’t believe the supernatural claims of Christianity, of course he did. But if you do believe them, then the moral shortcomings of Christians (which I suggest are rather exaggerated by Mr Adams) are not the ultimate test. “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” – Yours, etc,
Sir, – David Adams, in his thoughtful article on Easter, (Opinion, April 5th), takes care to emphasise that he is not a follower of Jesus Christ or “anything like it”. Yet, he goes to great pains to cite scripture for his purpose.
Now wasn’t there someone famous who made it a habit of doing that? Would any of your readers care to jog an octogenarian’s memory? – Yours, etc,