Taking Christianity Seriously

Let me take a stab at a partial answer to the first part of Rick's query, that is, the question whether Christianity should be taken seriously by outsiders if it appears to make no difference in the lives of those who call themselves Christians.

Our human frailty means we will never completely live up to our call as Christians to live as Christ and to reveal Christ in all that we say and do.  I don't think our failure to be perfect disciples disqualifies us from preaching the Gospel to others or suggests a failing of Christianity. 

However, it is one thing to devote one's life to God and fail to live up to a standard of perfection we can never meet.  It is another to fail to commit oneself to the effort and merely to talk about Christianity as though Christian thought were somehow divorced from how we live our own lives.  If an "outsider" can not see Christians who are at least trying to walk the walk as well as talk the talk - if it appears that this is just a lot of words that don't affect behavior, why should they take Christianity seriously? 

The fact that some Christians (or even a lot of them) kill, steal, engage in self-centered and sexually immoral behavior, etc. does not mean that Christ made no difference.  But I think it does have to be apparent to an outsider that Christianity affects how at least some number of people live their lives for them to be persuaded that it makes a difference.

Susan