Well, there it was.  On Sunday February 28th I witnessed a miracle.  Well, ok, maybe not a part-the-seas sort of miracle, but a shocker none the less.  On that day the New York Times published on its editorial page an opinion piece favorable to evangelical Christianity.  Wow.

The writer was Nicholas D. Kristoff and his piece was called “Learning from the sins of Sodom.”  You can read it on the New York Times website.  Just do a search from the main page.  Sure, the article was not 100% favorable to us, he took a few shots at us and he also got some facts wrong.  But in general his writing was to secular liberals explaining how evangelicals have moved into the forefront of the global battle against ills of the world such as famine and disaster relief, AIDS, human trafficking, vaccinations, health care for the poor and needy and a host of other things.  His point was “Hey guys, wake up and look what those evangelicals are actually doing.”  Here is a quote from his summary:

“There’s a tendency for liberals to devote lots of ink to decrying conservative Christians, because of their positions on social issues. I disagree strongly with typical evangelical positions on gay marriage, abortion, abstinence only education — but I also think that liberals don’t appreciate the impact of the arrival of evangelicals into humanitarian space or give sufficient credit for that change.”

As I said, he did take some shots at us but they were well-meaning and somewhat deserved.  Here is a summary of his article:

“If secular liberals can give up some of their snootiness, and if evangelicals can retire some of their sanctimony, then we all might succeed together in making greater progress against common enemies of humanity, like illiteracy, human trafficking and maternal mortality.”

 One focus of the article was World Vision, and the work they do around the world.  It was clear that he needed to explain who World Vision was to his readers.  In spite of the fact they are the largest relief agency in the world, because they have Christian roots, they are unknown to unwilling-to-see liberals.  All-in-all, it was good to see the article, and more than a little astonishing.

I gave some thought to going to the discussion page to say thank you.  I generally avoid such sites as I am not a fan of showing up in places where my very existence, let along my opinion, is clearly infuriating to the folks there.  But perhaps this was a good time to make an exception because, after all, one secularist making positive points about evangelicals is better than 100 of us shouting it.

Well, I went there and found a couple of my Christian brothers had beaten me there.  One was taking Kristoff to task for his “attacks” on us.  (Examples of those “attacks” are in the quotes above.)  The other tersely explained that World Vision is not evangelical.  The tone of one was so hostile that it has since been taken down by The Times.

So here is the summary of the impressions I had and I am sure others will get:

Kristoff:  “Hey guys, cut those evangelicals some slack.  They aren’t all narrow-minded, mean-spirited meanies.”

Christian answers:  “Oh yes we are!”

It doesn’t matter whether I agree with all that World Vision does and stands for.  It doesn’t matter if Kristoff still has his doubts about us.  What matters is that he seemed to be setting aside his doubts and concerns and challenging fellow liberals to hold out a hand to us.  Yet for some reason a couple of our brothers felt it important to reject that hand.

So I will borrow from Jesus and His story of the Good Samaritan.  “Which of these was showing everyday grace?”