Letter from a Christian Citizen

Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation is a runaway bestseller, competing on this list of bestsellers with several other titles dealing with atheism. In a personable, affable style, Sam Harris sets out to destroy religion and to call the attention of the American public to the destruction caused by religion. His aim is nothing less than the eradication of all religion. Letter from a Christian Citizen is Douglas Wilson's response to Harris. In a book that looks very similar and is written in a similar style, Wilson writes a response directed directly at Sam Harris. He goes point-by-point through Letter to a Christian Nation addressing Harris' claims and arguments.

While never ceding any ground, Wilson is always very respectful and kind (even if he is a tad sarcastic at times). He writes in a way that will not offend or cause people to turn aside because of the form of address. Perhaps the book's closing words show most clearly his care not to provoke the reader: "May the Lord call you to Himself, on the basis of this kind of gospel. But whether He does this or not, if we ever meet, I would love to buy you a beer."

Throughout the text he carefully and succinctly addresses Harris' claims, relying largely on showing where atheists are simply unable to pronounce moral judgment and where their arguments are necessarily inconsistent. Because Harris offered little by way of original argumentation in his book, Wilson's task is not particularly difficult and that value of this book is primarily as a response to a bestseller and as a short and tidy summary of the usual arguments offered by atheists. "Atheism is at its weakest when it comes to finding a decent foundation for oughts and shoulds." "You are an atheist, an evolutionist. And yet you praise the morality of utter non-violence, which would have gotten the evolutionary struggle absolutely nowhere." "Given atheism, morality reduces to personal preferences." "Atheism not only casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God (which it certainly does), but it also destroys the very concept of benevolence itself." "The closed system that makes up your universe is impervious to any evidence to the contrary." "One of the tell-tale signs of trouble for a theory or a paradigm is when its defenders resort to name-calling in lieu of argument and abstinately defend an ossified orthodoxy instead of answering reasonable questions."

In the closing pages, Wilson makes a careful presentation of the gospel message--the only true remedy for those who deny God's existence. He calls Harris and anyone else who reads this book to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ. He shows that the call of the gospel is not a call to religion, but a call to Christ Himself. "We need actual medicine, not the idea of medicine. And this is why we need Christ, not religion."

It seems now that whenever a book releases that criticizes Christianity, a Christian response is not far behind (consider the many books that answered The Da Vinci Code. Just yesterday I received two titles answering other recent anti-Christian books). Some of these are done well while others leave a lot to be desired. Letter from a Christian Citizen is a Christian response done right. It is winsome and respectful, authoritative without condescension. It answers clearly, carefully and with dignity. Reading these two books, one after the other, was an interesting study and one I'd recommend to others. Christians have nothing to fear from Sam Harris and his attempts to discredit the faith. But there is a lot to learn by reading Wilson's careful response.