Daily 49er - Believers are anything but crazy

Ryan Sweeney

In the Feb. 24 issue, the On-line Forty-Niner printed an article by Gerry Wachovsky titled, "True believers are truly crazy." In this article, Wachovsky expressed some of his opinions on what he apparently considers the absurdity of the Christian faith. Now, I don't know if Wachovsky's article was intended as bait for someone like me -- a conservative Christian -- or not, but regardless, I'm going to respond, because one extreme opinion merits another extreme opinion. That way, the reader can see both sides of the issue and decide for him or herself what to think.

Near the beginning of his article, Wachovsky states that "nobody else wants to be subject to [a religious person's] delusions." I can only speak for myself, but I'm very glad that my best friend shared her faith with me, because it's through her that I became a Christian in the first place and saw countless positive changes in my life thanks to my faith in Jesus Christ. I'm certainly quite thankful that I was "subject" to my best friend's "delusions."

Wachovsky also criticizes the historical evidence for Christianity's claims, asking, "[H]ow in the world is it that anybody knows what occurred centuries ago?" The answer is actually quite simple: by examining historical documents and archaeological findings. Any halfway decent history professor would tell you that writing off the Gospels solely on the basis of how long ago their stories happened is simply unscholarly. But don't listen to Wachovsky or me; read up on the evidence for Christianity and form your own conclusions.

One more issue that I want to address is a fitness center franchise with a Christian theme, the Lord's Gym. Wachovsky cites part of the gym's dress code -- "Bike shorts are allowed but only when worn under a loose-fitting T-Shirt" -- and implies that dressing modestly is a ridiculous thing to do. Christianity, however, places great emphasis on the purity of one's mind, and that means Christian men are not supposed to ogle women. I don't see anything wrong with Christian women dressing modestly to help Christian men not to commit what they would consider a sin.

To answer the question that I posed in the title of this article, I obviously do not believe that true believers are truly crazy. Every aspect of faith that Wachovsky criticizes makes perfect sense when simply considered from a Christian perspective. Take anything out of context, and it will make a lot less sense.

The ultimate point of Wachovsky's article, however, seems to be that faith is a ludicrous motive for any action. I'd just like to point out how much faith it takes to believe that all religions are false.

To read Wachovsky's article, go to www.csulb.edu/~d49er and look under "Archives" for the Opinion section of the Feb. 24, 2004 issue.

Ryan Sweeney is majoring in German at Cal State Long Beach.