John Shore Christian Blog and Commentary

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As I Wind My Way Toward Total Media Dominance (and a word or two to my recent commentators)

I am soooo late preparing for this flight I’m catching tomorrow morning to South Bend, Indiana, where, on Thursday morning (May 31), I’m due at the television studios of The Harvest Show. If you watch the hour-long broadcast on Thursday, you will at some point therein see me, being (I hope) Casual Yet Engaging, as I get interviewed about my book I’m OK--You’re Not. (Linking like that to the book’s Amazon page: Cheesy, Opportunistic Intrusion, or Legitimately Helpful? You be the judge! Cuz I can never tell.)

My wife Cat is coming with me. That way I have a much better chance of actually arriving at the studio on time Thursday morning. Or at all, for that matter. Cat is outstanding with maps and directions. I, on the other hand, am always completely confident that the way the car is facing at the time is the way I should drive. It always just seems to make sense. It very rarely proves to, though. So we make a good team.

Check out The Harvest Show. This is from the Information Sheet I guess they send upcoming guests about the show, and giving them directions and stuff:

"Generally speaking, the program airs at 9 AM (EST) then is replayed at 10pm and 2 AM Check your local listings to confirm. We have North American coverage of approx. 46 million homes via DirecTV ch. 321, twelve LeSEA stations, cable, and syndication around the country.  Our Middle East Television (METV) satellite reaches 73 million homes in Israel and 15 surrounding nations on channel 24 on cable to Israel.  Far East TeleVision (FETV) airs LeSEA Broadcasting to approximately 4.3 billion people in Asia, Australia, all of Europe and Africa. Our European coverage is 78 million homes with the Wonderful Network, and 8 million homes in Argentina on Canal Luz. We also transmit on 5 shortwave stations to 1 billion shortwave radios on the planet."

Um. Right. So. The thing to do, is not forget to pack the antiperspirant.

Note to self: Figure out how to own that shortwave radio audience. Talk about untapped potential!

Note to people leaving the wonderful comments here: It’s not, as I’ve said, that I don’t want nonbelievers to be saved by Jesus. Of course I do; what Christian doesn’t? My point is that until someone asks me to share my faith with them, I should only love them, and trust the Holy Spirit to take care of the rest. You can’t talk anyone into being Christian; conversion is an emotional experience, not an intellectual one. No one (that is, no adult, in this culture) isn’t a Christian because they lack information about Christianity. Everyone has available to them, 24-7, all the information they could ever want or need about our faith. What I think nonbelievers don’t have enough of in their lives are Christians who “just” love them, who show true and thoughtful respect for who they are and what they believe--who, in other words, have clearly made their primary imperative fulfilling the very commandment Jesus said should be the believer’s primary imperative. Jesus didn’t say to love our neighbors once they convert. He said to love them, period. And that means respecting them, since love without respect is no love at all--it’s condescension. And if you respect someone, you don’t disrespect them--you don’t undermine that love--by telling them that they’re wrong about virtually everything that’s important in life. If you do tell them that--if you do try to convert someone who hasn’t first asked you for that kind of intimate, extremely personal input--then you will repel them away from you, the same way any of us would be repelled by someone telling us Christianity is wrong. And a person repelled from you is a person with whom you don’t have a relationship. Which means you can’t fulfill the Great Commandment with them. Which means that you’re directly disobeying the one, supreme, overriding directive given us by Jesus.

I mean … I’m not by nature an argumentative person. I don’t like having an opinion that makes people want to … write me a lot, to tell me how wrong I am. That’s just not me. But I just can’t see any way around this clear, simply logic. “The Great Commission and The Great Commandment are perfectly compatible” is an outstanding, heartwarming, inspiring theory. But as a practical reality, it falls apart just as quickly as it takes anyone to want to stop dealing with anyone--and especially with a stranger--who has insulted them.

But believe me, I’m totally open to how telling someone they’re wrong about whatever they believe isn’t insulting to them. That’s the language I would very, very much like to hear.

Anyway, all love to the commentators. I know everyone’s just trying to do right by the Lord. Together, we’ll figure it out.

comment here