That One Starfish

Remember the Christian anecdote about the footprints in the sand?  It's easily the most popular "Christian fable" (if such a term may be employed) that I can think of. 

If "Footprints" is the most popular Christian fable, then the Starfish fable is probably the silver medal. 

Basically, a man is seen walking down the beach, periodically he stops and throws a starfish from the sand into the surf, essentially saving the starfish's life.  An observer who sees that the beach is full of starfish comes up to the man and says "There are so many starfish to save, even if you worked all day and night you wouldn't make a difference."  The man flings another starfish and replies "I made a difference to that one."

The story works so well because we so often take the role of the "observer".  We're big picture people, we like to step back, frame our world, and then make judgements.  When you step back, you see nothing but a beach full of dying starfish, the one man becomes such a small part of the picture he's barely noticeable.  So the observer walks away with a sad story, there's a beach full of dying starfish. 

In the real world this unfortunate "framing" happens on a much bigger and more significant level.

How many times have you heard someone claim that Christianity has only caused problems?  It's a popular argument among skeptics and agnostics.  When you look through their frame though, you can see where they're coming from.  The "frame" their looking through is called "recorded history" and when you lay it out end to end it tells a sad tale of Christianity.  

The persecution of the Caesars

The scattering of the believers

The Crusades

The Spanish Inquisition

Catholics killing Protestants

Protestants killing Catholics

Being arrested, tortured, and mocked at the hands of various governments.

It's not pretty, and much of the violence listed above was caused by people claiming to act in God's name.  So, using "recorded history" as your frame, you'd see the same thing a skeptic would see.

The problem is, essentially, the frame its self.

Remember how the observer on the beach lost sight of the man helping the starfish?  All he could see was the sad painting that his point of view provided.  The same is true of history.

But there's a whole other picture that history seems to lose sight of. 

During all those horrible times cited above, there were Christians, by the thousands, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, clothing the naked, giving time, giving energy, giving money.  And doing it because Jesus told them to.  

And even when there wasn't "bad times" there were still Christians doing the same.  All over the world.

And they're still doing it today.

The lives saved by Christianity would so far outnumber the lives lost because of Christianity that the comparison its self would become asinine.

However, history records the grand moments, the large scale events, and more often than not, forgets the good in favor of remembering the bad.

How many history books have a sentence like "Jimmy traveled around his village handing out bread and coins, and he did this every week until he died."

History forgets Jimmy.

So looking through our frame, gazing down the beach, we see only stranded starfish, the "helping man" becomes a speck on the horizon.

A walk down the beach however, will reveal something the frame didn't show.

The helping man is not alone.

There are millions just like him, and they won't stop.