For too long Christians have been in retreat. Lately, several men with very little knowledge of theology or cultural history have foisted tracts on to a public that has been denied exposure to the rich tradition of Christianity upon which our rights, our values, and highest forms of art are based. A handful of smug "scientists" (Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, among them) have come along displaying their ignorance in pedestrian prose.

Like the big Liar, they look for and exploit weaknesses. The flock has been demoralized both by the weasels (called humanities professors) nipping at them when they were young and vulnerable, and by the leaders of churches who have either sacrificed some lambs (hoping to appease these atheist hyenas) or have simply retreated from the world.

In the public universities today, professors wax on about the wonders of Islam or Native American scalp dances, but stutter apologetically about "oppression," "hegemony," and "imperialism" when they present the great works of our Western tradition. Smart-alecky graduate teaching assistants express their desire to disabuse undergraduates of the Christian beliefs and values they enter college with. Craven tenured professors give in to feminists strutting in high heels and mini skirts or in Dickies pants; they meekly follow the order of the feminist department heads to place on their syllabi the learning objective, "an understanding of gender, cultural, and ethnic diversity." At faculty meetings they nod and express agreement about the need for "diversity," as the great literary works like Paradise Lost are replaced by such vile things as the lyrics of Tupac Shakur (true story).

But we need to be reminded that Christians started almost all of the major universities in this country. If it weren't for Christians, the atheists would be chanting into the fire and clubbing each other over the head for food and women. But contrary to the historical evidence, the atheists claim to have the moral high ground, to be the most civilized, while cashing in royalty checks. Christians' own recent timidity is partly to blame.

The Catholic Church abandoned its rich traditions and emphasis on scholasticism while priests went protesting and parishioners wore jeans to mass. The Church adopted the ways of the world (and a pretty bad world at that in the 1960s), and rather than allowing the Gospel to work through souls, caved in to political demands. The Catholic Church has sacrificed lambs on the altar of political correctness.

Evangelicals have retreated, refusing to read or listen to anything that engages the world or involves serious thought. They read their own literalist tracts and live circumscribed lives. Christian bookstores carry only their own pious tomes that hardly qualify as great literature. Christian art refuses to engage with the world and has thereby become largely irrelevant, except to those seeking to affirm their own beliefs in a pious, non-challenging way.

It isn't much better for the small group of serious Christian literary writers. Indeed, at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Atlanta last week, out of over 300 panels (with some on such topics as "Deviant Fictions by Women," "Queer Poetry/Queer Myth," and "Native American Literature in the Classroom,") two panels were dedicated to Christian literature, and one only by way of Flannery O'Connor. The panel, "Fact and Mystery: The Legacy of Flannery O'Connor," was made up of a publisher of a literary journal of arts and religion and three of its writers. What I learned from this panel was that the Christian writer "writes out of moments of his own doubt."

So, the literary writer who is Christian is to express "doubt." Gee, thanks for letting us do that. We wouldn't want to offend non-Christians. We wouldn’t dare take a stand on the big questions.

The published literature reflects this axiom. Literary Christian writing today portrays the tedium of small domestic dramas. The writers and publishers of these journals are as quivering as the tenured professors who dutifully put "race, class, and gender" on their syllabi, and are afraid to mention the Trinity in class discussions.

Do the atheists express doubt? No, they have all kinds of faith in themselves--from the smug authors of atheistic apologetics to the narcissistic authors who see into "nothing," from Sartre to Jonathan Franzen.

The leftist literary writer has no qualms about promoting his politics through his fiction and poetry, as well as in his commentary. About a quarter of the contributors to the Huffington Post are creative writers--novelists, screen writers, poets, etc. In fact, they get directly involved in politics and use their cachet as writers through "Litpac," a political action committee of writers who made phone calls to voters during the 2006 elections. A luminary is Stephen Elliott, author of autobiographical sadomasochistic fiction, teacher at creative writing workshops, and a featured performer in the "Sex Workers Tour" that visited campuses across the country this year. While the non-Christian writer is rewarded for promoting sadomasochism, and blazes forward in the political arena, the Christian writer congratulates himself for expressing doubt.

Did Dante express doubt? Did Flannery O'Connor? The artist who expresses doubt is at one and the same time a coward and a tyrant. He is a coward, obviously, because he is afraid to express his faith, to go out on a limb, to be vulnerable to being wrong or attacked for his views. The doubter, the equivocator, is above criticism, and above engagement.

Writers who are Christian should not be afraid to present their ideas to a mainstream audience. The staying power of Flannery O'Connor even among nonbelievers is a testament. As they say in dancing: Lead strong even if you lead wrong. There can be no dance without a lead. There can be no memorable art from a position of doubt or neutrality.

The Christian writers of mystery plays during the Middle Ages displayed great ribald humor, of themselves and of Biblical characters. There is the great tradition of satire in the vein of Evelyn Waugh. And none of the nice pastel pious literature of today presents the horrors of hell the way Dante and Milton do. Or humor that cuts the way Flannery O'Connor's or Walker Percy's did. Continued...