Jesus will continue to be scandalous

I live in Australia which is a very secular society where God is NEVER mentioned in the news or by politicians. In the US it seems the God word is over used and over abused, by both sides of the spiritual spectrum. From this side of the world it looks like politics was long ago hijacked by the religious far right. Both sides seem to have entirely lost the point about what Christianity really is.

Australians like most of the western world is in crisis, spiritual crisis. How else can it be that depression, substance abuse, family breakdown, poverty, mental illness and rampant, mindless consumption and selfishness are on the rise? Where the size of your flat screen TV and the size of your house matter more than how big your heart is and how much you love? Matt your music reminds me of what its all really about, it lifts me up and i can see the bigger picture. Thank you. I LOVE your music. We have just 1 Christian radio station in Melbourne which is where i first heard 'Alive Again' and i turn it up and it just blasts the cobwebs away. Jesus was a revolutionary, He said "Love one another as i have loved you" and if that's bad and controlling then people are twisting his words. Buddha said "Control your thoughts', Krisna said "Be joyful", they were all revolutionaries.
And yes Jesus also said "you will be hated by the world for my name's sake" and some of the respondents to your blog illustrated that exactly. They have blindfolds on their eyes, plugs in the ears, a tight chain around their hearts, they are stumbling around in the dark. You have found the light Matt.

because in an ever-increasing humanistic society, there is no room for good news of unmerited grace, mercy, freedom, and affection.

There's all sorts of room for all sorts of news, good and bad. Now that you have to compete with people who actually think for themselves you seem to think nobody is listening.

We don't need your religion or anybody's religion to do good, to hear good things, to express and experience mercy. Humanity has it with or without your particular religion. Now that we're waking up from our christian oppression here in the modern world, many of us only wish you would be truly merciful and s t f u.

I love you guys- you say whatever you want, be as offensive as you want, and then when people push back you go, "OH! I am being persecuted for my faith!" Does it ever occur to you to realize you reap what you sow? Has it ever occurred to Brit Hume or Pat Robertson or you and your host of others who constantly whine how persecuted you are, that perhaps you should take responsibility for what you do and accept the reaction for what it is? Your bad karma.

When Jesus said "you will be hated by the world for my name's sake," was he saying part of that hatred would be caused by Donohue Catholics and their theocratic Bishops who, while ranting and raving about gays and civil marriages, hide pedophile priests from US Justice and allow Notre Dame to print a cartoon in it's student news paper that says "the best way to turn a fruit into a vegetable is with a baseball bat"?

Real "Christ like"

Jesus is not hated for what He did or said but because of the bullying, actions and words of his intolerant, hateful followers.

If I were Him, I would change my last name.

Matt,

Well said! Your blog makes perfect sense. It is scandalous to be called a Christian. Even worse a Catholic Christian, I love it! Bring it on. Scandal away. There is a freedom in not being afraid! It is not shocking to be hated its par, welcome to the club, "culture warrior" aka O'Rielly glad you could make it. :

More than that, there's like seven Evangelical channels on basic cable here not counting the ones in Spanish.

For anyone else? None.

If there's a non-negative mention of Paganism in anything, the media sure legitimizes the general hue and cry, though.

OK, so, we keep constantly hearing the media parrot this idea that only Christianity has any goodness in it, nod compliantly when someone says 'Humanism could be the source of all badness in the world!' then turn around and, after giving the Fundies microphones to play 'bad cop' with... ask from behind their corporate sponsorships... "Are we too liberal and biased against Christianity?"

Shennanigans.