My Thoughts on Stephen Fry
It was a while back that a video of Stephen Fry went viral. Recently I was in conversation with someone explaining what it means to be a Christian. It was ironic that one of the questions that surfaced was directly related to this interview, it went something like this. “I have to agree with something Stephen Fry said; why would God make horrible little bugs that burrow into the eyes of children and cause blindness?”
I was amazed that in such a short space of conversation about God, Stephen Fry’s interview from way back in January 2015 was immediately at the forefront of this person’s mind!
I couldn’t help thinking, how many other people have got stuck on Stephen Fry too?
Around the time the video went viral, there were so many people sharing it, yet very few were giving answers or insight into how we might respond. The heading alone was in my opinion enough to start skewing the viewer toward Stephen being right. Something had to be said, at least amongst the people whom I have influence!
While there are many different angles that could be taken in responding to this, I specifically wanted to address the headline that Huffington Post gave: ‘Atheist Stephen Fry Delivers Incredible Answer When Asked What He Would Say If He Met God’.
Here’s a copy of the post that I shared on my Facebook timeline:
The things that Stephen Fry has mentioned in this interview are straight from the heart of God. You can clearly see that Stephen has a passion to shun the evil in this world, that’s God’s heart. Stephen is upset with cancer in children, that’s God’s heart. There are horrible little bugs that bring all sorts of disease; there was never meant to be disease and suffering — again, that’s God’s heart. God did create the heavens and the earth and everything in it, He created us, but then He gave us choice, and that’s where the problem lies. He doesn’t force us to love Him, He wouldn’t want to, forced love is not love.
Our eyes have been blinded as we’ve been deceived by something that is supposedly better — supposedly better than God and in the end it’s brought destruction.
As Stephen said, “It’s utterly utterly evil” and I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. So does God!
Therein lies many problems:
So many people blame God, yet they don’t even believe He exists!
Then if God does exist, He’s got some kind of schizophrenic personality disorder — we start to dictate (in essence) with our extremely limited thinking how God should act. God cannot and will not work outside of the laws He has set within His nature and character and all MUST work together. None of them can be independent of the other, that is how God has chosen to be e.g. love, grace, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, truth, judgement.
Where is the emphasis on the enemy? Why is he never blamed for anything?
God is too often blamed for evil — yet it wasn’t Him who created it, that’s where rebellion comes in.
Why doesn’t a loving God save everyone? Well, you’ve heard it from Stephen, he wouldn’t want to be saved. See, God is a loving God and He is not going to force anyone that doesn’t want to be with Him, to be with Him in eternity.
Stephen needs to keep this passion for injustice, God would want him to. We all need to have this passion for injustice and suffering, God wants us to. The only problem is, God is not to blame.
This may seem like a shallow answer, but it really is quite simple. If we put our focus back onto God and throw our spears at the enemy we would end up with a VERY different-looking world. Many of the things we get upset about are actually God’s heart, but we turn on Him and start blaming Him instead.
God sent his own son Jesus to endure incredible suffering and take our place so we can be reconciled to God. As the Bible says in Isaiah 53:3–12 (the Scripture was also included in the post).
Perhaps this response may help you a little in leading people toward Jesus that have got ‘stuck on Stephen Fry’. I’m reminded that as Christians we do need to be ready to give answers for the hope that we have in us — 1 Peter 3:15. That takes practice!
The viral videos and opinions won’t stop. People will continue to watch them, but let’s not sit back and allow people to get stuck on Stephen Fry or any others that would twist the truth. We are called to bring light and be people of influence. Keep up the good work and keep practicing — let’s not give up on doing good (Galatians 6:9).
