Cultural Engagement: It's Not A War

found online

I saw this video a while ago, turned on to me by a guy who was all about how we have to "defend the Truth of the Gospel,"* which may or may not be a post for another time.

Anyway, Penn Jillette is a one half of the famous comedy duo Penn and Teller who do (does? done did?) shows in Vegas. Penn is apparently well known for being an outspoken athiest** and also well known for doing these kind of video blog posts*** where he rants about...well, whatever.

But one day after a show, a guy gave him a Bible. Check this out. The rant isn't what you think it's going to be:

Yeah, it's not comfortable looking up his nostrils the whole time, I know... But did you catch the rant? 3:00 in. (Yeah, he doesn't foam at the mouth rant, don't worry, it's safe to click the link, I promise)

"And I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell and that people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, uh, well it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward. And athiests who think that people shouldn't proselytize - just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself. Uh, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that..."

How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?

From an athiest...

But you have to watch the video to catch the whole point about cultural engagement. The guy he's talking about didn't try to ague him out of being an athiest, didn't do anything but be respectful, honest and direct. Basically, I respect you as a person, I enjoy what you do as an entertainer. Since I can have this moment of access to your life I want to take the opportunity to say to you that I would like you to know the truth about Jesus. Here's my card...it's a Bible :) I don't think - gasp - he even offered to pray with Jillette - or take him down the Romans road or anything.

Jillette is still an athiest.

But, those followers of Jesus have not pushed any farther away and may, perhaps, have drawn him a tiny bit closer.

That's not to say that every encounter should be soft-pedaled. But not every encounter needs to be a hard-sell, either.

It's not a war with other people. The war, as I read my Bible, is going on in the spiritual realm. As my good friend Ray said in worship a week or two ago, "Your fight isn't with the neighbor or the guy at work or the person sitting next to you. Paul says it's with principalities and powers of the air. It's with the enemy. Spiritual forces that we wrestle with Paul uses that word intentionally because that is where our battle is, but the enemy uses these people, these conflicts to distract us from the real battle."****

Tell the world... but maybe use your inside voice...













*You know, I get really concerned when the conversation turns from "defending the Truth from becoming subsumed in the philosphies of the world" to "defending the Truth from other Christians". We are weird bunch of people...
**Um, well, maybe not that well known. I didn't know, for example. Neither did my wife. Or anybody at the table at the seminar. Oh, you didn't either? Well, still, it's a well known fact. 'Cause "they" say so...
***Yeah, okay - some well known things aren't that well known, okay?
****That's my paraphrase, of course. It was two weeks ago. Cut me some slack...