A reader writes:
Today I got to thinking: Why is it that people like Lee Strobel are so eager to believe Christianity?After all, from reading his books I’ve come to conclude that he must be somewhat dishonest with himself: He’s jumped to a conclusion, presumably because he wants to believe very badly.
Why do you think he finds Christianity so attractive?
This looks puzzling at first, but I think the answer’s pretty clear: Strobel became an Evangelical Christian because his wife did. At most, his much-touted “journalist’s investigation” was a matter of having a little trouble swallowing the things his wife’s church was teaching him, and then setting out to convince himself of it because he was emotionally committed to doing so.
As a general matter: Rodney Stark, before he started doing really embarrassing attempts at history, did sociological work showing that this is how conversions mostly happen: through a person’s social network. Even groups known for trying to evangelize complete strangers, like the Mormons, have much higher success rates trying to convert friends and family of the already-converted than they do with “cold” evangelism.
Looking at Strobel specifically: if you want a better idea of his story, pick up a copy of Strobel’s first religious book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary (go to a library if you can, but a used copy is only $4 on Amazon). It wasn’t published until Strobel had been working as a pastor for six years, so he obviously had some time to refine his self-presentation before writing it, but it gives a more detailed explanation of his conversion than you get in his later books. There, it’s really, really clear that Strobel decided to convert after attending a few church services for his wife’s sake, and before doing any “investigation” of Christianity. Though this requires a little more reading between the lines, plus knowledge of the available religious apologetics at the time, you can also work out that his “investigation” mainly just consisted of reading Evangelical apologetics and creationist tracts: some of the things he says he “discovered” are just the Cliff Notes version of Josh McDowell (who has been around longer than Strobel) and when he talks about having “looked at” other religions, he’s just repeating what other apologists say about those religions, and doesn’t seem to know how those religions defend themselves.
By the way, the story with Josh McDowell seems to be similar: the official Campus Crusade biography of him describes how he got going to church because of his social network (IIRC there was a girl involved), though his “I investigated Christianity” story is even more dubious.