St. Francis of Assisi may have died 800 years ago, but his influence still looms. He was a man who venerated nature and lived a life of great sacrifice in service to God and his church. But within the Christian ecosystem, he has become most famous for an adage that strikes a chord with anyone who is serious about sharing their faith:
Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words.
The modern interpretation of Francis’s exhortation is clear. Our charge is to love people into the kingdom, not argue them there. If you’ve bought into that mindset it may surprise you to learn that it’s not accurate. And it may surprise you even more to learn that it flies in the face of an atheist’s call to make our case.
Here’s why.
A Gospel Without Words?
On one level there is no denying that, “who you are speaks so loudly that no one can hear what you say.” We certainly don’t want the life we live to deny everything about the faith we claim to represent. But is the Franciscan inversion of this exhortation also true? Can we proclaim the message through our actions alone?
The problem here is that the Gospel makes propositional truth claims about the nature of the world, the nature of man, and the remedy for man’s rebellion against God. It’s a story about reality. And it’s only “good news” if it’s actually true. So, how can we share the propositional truth claims of such a message and explain their implications without using words or giving answers?
I contend that we can’t. Furthermore, the attitude that says we can is not only harmful, but it also does violence to the Gospel it claims to love. This contention is not my own. A rabid atheist will back me up.
The Gift of a Bible
Penn Jillette and his partner, Raymond Teller, have been entertaining Las Vegas audiences for years. Their mixture of magic, music, and commentary – the Penn & Teller show – is the longest-running show at the same hotel in Las Vegas history. Jillette is a magician, actor, and inventor. He is also a hard-core atheist – so adamant about his denial of God’s existence that at one point in his life he is said to have owned three cars with vanity license plates that read: “atheist,” “nogod,” and “godless.” “Strangely enough,” says Jillette, “they wouldn’t give me ‘infidel.’ He was also a happy participant in YouTube’s viral “blasphemy challenge,” in which participants publicly mock and denounce the Holy Spirit.
Penn Jillette is no friend of Christianity. But he has a message that every Christian should take to heart.
In July 2010, Jillette posted a video online in which he shared the story of a man who approached him after one of his performances. The man was extremely complimentary of the Penn & Teller show. He said he enjoyed Jillette’s honesty, his use of language, and his talent. The man was polite and humble. And he came bearing a gift.
“I was here last night,” said the man, “I brought this for you.” The man handed Jillette a pocket Bible containing the New Testament and the book of Psalms. Penn Jillette was genuinely humbled and impressed by the actions and attitude of this kind Christian man. And he is quite direct about how he received the gesture.
I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. If you believe there’s a heaven and hell … and if you believe that people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life … and you think that it’s not worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward … How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that a truck was bearing down on you and you didn’t believe it, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that (emphasis mine).
Misquoting St. Francis
Most of us don’t have a lot in common with a rabid atheist Las Vegas showman who mocks the Holy Spirit. But every Christian would do well to take seriously Penn Jillette’s reflection. Not only does it fly in the face of the just-love-them-into-the-kingdom mindset, but it also comports with what Francis actually said … and with what he did.
It turns out the legendary quote attributed to St. Francis is nothing but a modern corruption of the words he actually wrote in 1221 AD:
Let none of the brothers preach contrary to the form and institution of the church … Nevertheless, let all the brothers preach by their works.[1]
Notice that Francis did not render preaching the gospel a contingent option. Instead, he linked words and actions directly together.
Francis of Assisi devoted himself to the kind of life for which he is now known after being convicted by a sermon he heard in 1209. He took a vow of poverty, felt connected to nature and the beauty of the creation, and demonstrated empathy for others. But he was also known for the powerful sermons he delivered. He lived out the Gospel, and he was happy to tell others about it.
Words Are Always Necessary
Arguments and evidence are far from arrogant intellectual add-ons to the Gospel. They are integral to it. God saturated our world with truths that could never be adequately expressed through our actions alone. There are plenty of examples of militant atheists who have turned to God after hearing about them. C. S. Lewis, Antony Flew, Lee Strobel, and J. Warner Wallace come to mind. Penn Jillette isn’t on that list – yet. That’s his choice, not ours. Don’t hate him for it. Be winsome and kind. But by all means, don’t be silent.
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This article first appeared on the Salvo blog on May 20, 2022
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“God saturated our world with truths that could never be adequately expressed through our actions alone. There are plenty of examples of militant atheists who have turned to God after hearing about them. C. S. Lewis, Antony Flew, Lee Strobel, and J. Warner Wallace come to mind. Penn Jillette isn’t on that list – yet. That’s his choice, not ours. Don’t hate him for it. Be winsome and kind. But by all means, don’t be silent.”
No one needs the false claims of Christianity. Claims of conversion don’t work since you guys are constantly changing teams, even among your various sects which don’t agree. As for Flew, funny how he wan’t a Christian at all.
Christian actions are no different from any other humans. You are just like everyone else, and you couldn’t pick me from a crowd and say I was or wasn’t christian.
1. I would be interested to know which “false claims of Christianity” you’re referring to. I didn’t actually make any claims about Christianity in this post. I was simply recognizing the intellectual honesty Penn Jillette displayed in his encounter with a Christian.
2. True, there are different denominations within Christianity. But those are mostly due to differences in style, or theological nuances that are irrelevant to the truth claims of Christian teaching. Certainly they are irrelevant to atheism. So, I’m not sure what relevance that has to this post.
3. I never said Antony Flew was a Christian. The point is that Flew’s turn to theism at the end of his life is remarkable considering he was probably the leading intellectual atheist of the 20th century. I would also point out that he changed his mind due to the evidence he saw in the design of nature. In other words, like Jillette, he was also intellectually honest.
Can you say the same?
“1. I would be interested to know which “false claims of Christianity” you’re referring to. I didn’t actually make any claims about Christianity in this post. I was simply recognizing the intellectual honesty Penn Jillette displayed in his encounter with a Christian.”
false claims of christainity? That some god agrees with your opinions of morality. That this god exists, will punish people who don’t agree with it, that you have some “truths” when you can’t even convince each other.
It’s always amusing when a Christian tries to pretend he didn’t mean Christianity. That one atheist doesn’t find the constant bothering by Christians problematic isn’t my concern. Unfortunately, Penn doesn’t agree with you, and there is no “truck” coming at all. That some ignorant Christian tries to lie to me and claim a truck is coming doesn’t mean he is right, and doesn’t’ mean I can’t point out how he fails and stand against him when he tries to force his ignorance into law and onto me.
“2. True, there are different denominations within Christianity. But those are mostly due to differences in style, or theological nuances that are irrelevant to the truth claims of Christian teaching. Certainly they are irrelevant to atheism. So, I’m not sure what relevance that has to this post.”
That’s quite a set of lies right there. Alas, you each claim to have one “truth” but don’t agree on: what morals this god wants, what parts of he bible are to be considered literal or metaphor, whether it is free will or predestination, how to be saved, what baptism does and how to do it, etc. Your claim that the differences are “mostly due to differences in style or theological nuances” is simply false. I was a Christian, so I do know just why and how Christian sects disagree and often hate each other, calling each other heretics, satanists, etc.
Those differences are indeed irrelevant to atheism since they are all false nonense, but they are indeed relevant to your lying to people about what Christianity is.
“3. I never said Antony Flew was a Christian. The point is that Flew’s turn to theism at the end of his life is remarkable considering he was probably the leading intellectual atheist of the 20th century. I would also point out that he changed his mind due to the evidence he saw in the design of nature. In other words, like Jillette, he was also intellectually honest.”
You listed Flew with christains in your attempt to clam that he believed in your god: “There are plenty of examples of militant atheists who have turned to God after hearing about them. C. S. Lewis, Antony Flew, Lee Strobel, and J. Warner Wallace come to mind.” That “God” you mention is the Chrsitian one that you claim all listed believe in.
He was at best, a deist. His own words “There Is a God” he explained that he now believed in a supreme intelligence, removed from human affairs but responsible for the intricate workings of the universe. In other words, the Divine Watchmaker imagined by deists like Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph of London in 2004, he described “the God in whose existence I have belatedly come to believe” as “most emphatically not the eternally rewarding and eternally torturing God of either Christianity or Islam but the God of Aristotle that he would have defined – had Aristotle actually produced a definition of his (and my) God – as the first initiating and sustaining cause of the universe””
There is nothing to show that Flew was a leading atheist at all. Christians do like to claim that since they think is a better story rather than admitting that a British philosopher became a deist.
“Can you say the same?”
I do enjoy when a christian tries to claim that I can’t be “intellectually honest” unless I agree with him. Funny how there is no “intelligent design” in nature at all. But if you want to claim that, do explain why your god decided to make the main source of energy for our planet cause cancer in humans and animals. And do explain why it guaranteed the death of thousands per year by choking by putting the trachea beside the esophagus? Is it just stupid or malicious?
“I do enjoy when a Christian tries to claim that I can’t be ‘intellectually honest’ unless I agree with him.”
Well, let’s see. Penn Jillette is a rabid atheist. I disagree with him in very significant ways. And yet, I wrote an entire blog post about the honesty and sincerity he displayed after his encounter with a Christian. I said he was intellectually honest for doing so. So … maybe you just missed that part.
Maybe you also missed the fact (twice now) that I never said Antony Flew became a Christian. Either that, or you’re purposefully misrepresenting my claim. We may never know.
Other than those two things, I just want to thank you for your sincerity, politeness, clarity, and well-reasoned comment(s). It’s obvious you are here to have a civil and helpful discussion about the post. The intellectual honesty oozes from your keyboard. So, thanks for that. I look forward to engaging with you again sometime in the future.
All the best.
I’d like to respond to the Great Commission. That it is a task for today’s Christian is flawed for several reasons–Jesus was talking to his disciples, not today’s Christians; Jesus gives superpowers to his disciples (to heal the sick and forgive sins–see Matt. 10:1 and 18:18), which today’s Christians obviously don’t have; and so on. More here: https://onlysky.media/bseidensticker/missionary-john-chau-died-for-nothing-why-the-great-commission-didnt-apply-to-him-or-to-you/
I’m not quite sure I understand your comment, Bob. I didn’t mention the Great Commission. That said, I also agree that the passage you’re referring to in Matthew 28 quite often gets taken out of context. We have this misperception that the “Great Commission” compels us all to go become missionaries. But the “go” in that passage is in the aorist tense … meaning that we are to share the gospel “as we are going.” To the extent there is a “Great Commission,” we should see it as being a part of the life we live, wherever we’re living it. It is not a command to leave home to share it somewhere else.
Hi Bob.
Fine blog post. Just one thing: St. Francis of Assisi is FROM Assisi Italy 🇮🇹 in the Umbrian Valley.
He’s never referred to as “Assisi” as you do, but rather St. Francis, Francis or Francis of Assisi.
Assisi is not his last name. That would be like calling Jesus Galilee or Nazareth. A Galilean, sure. A Nazorean, of course.
So referring to Francisco Bernadone— St. Francis—as Assisi like you do is incorrect and sort of odd. Maybe editing that would be best.
Just a friendly criticism on an otherwise thought provoking article. We ARE too silent. Penn is correct.
Point well taken. I know St. Francis was from Assisi. But it didn’t occur to me that I was referring to him as if it was his last name until I read your comment. I appreciate your kind choice of words in calling that “odd,” and I’m wondering what in the world I was thinking!
Thank you … and thanks for reading.