Is Rocky Your Convert, Pastor?

Is Rocky your convert, pastor?

Consider this:

1. Rocky believes that she is a sinner.

2. Rocky believes that Jesus died for her.

3. Rocky believes that Jesus is God.

4. Rocky was baptized.

Conclusion: Rocky would be considered saved and could be a member at most evangelical churches.

Also consider:

1. Rocky drops the f-bomb several times every 60 seconds, among other things.

2. Rocky is a homosexual.

3. Rocky is either drunk or high or both.

4. Rocky has had an abortion and is proud of it.

Question: When someone gets saved, does it make any difference in their lives at all? Or is this what the true gospel produces? My Bible says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. My Bible still says that if any man is in Christ he is a new creature. Why have I caught flack from evangelicals on this? Because it exposes the results of their easy believism. I could crank converts out like this all day long but since I have to answer to God, I won't.

P.S. We have an interview that we have not aired yet with Rocky that we did about 20 minutes later where she listened to the gospel, took a gospel tract with my email on it, and actually listened. So before anyone passes judgment on me or any other street preacher for being too harsh, you might want to get the whole story. More importantly, you might want to evaluate your own theology which created Rocky and countless millions like her.

You Don't Have to be Nice to Be Effective, part 1

The Doctrine of Niceology

The evangelical Christian culture has believed for the last few decades that in order to be effective you have to be nice.  The basis for a whole genre of Christian publishing on friendship evangelism (in the eighties and nineties) which has been replaced with another genre on "missional living" (popular in the so-called Young, Restless and Reformed movement and anyone who does church planting) reinforces the doctrine of Niceology.  The seeker sensitive church movement has taken this doctrine and made it an essential of the faith. 

This is why almost every seeker sensitive church (and many that are not) trains people to be nice to you when you visit so you will come back.  It's called "the welcome center."  You will invariably walk away from it thinking, "Wow, those people were nice.  They gave me coffee, showed me where to dump off my kids so I don't have to look at them during the service, and they are well groomed.  This guy (or gal) is my new best friend!  I wonder if they are married?"  Just don't ask yourself the obvious question: why don't I ever see that nice person ever again unless I see them at the welcome center?   Don't forget the follow-up question, "Why didn't anyone else in this church say hello to me?" 

Niceology says that nice equates with "love."  The Bible says that love is part and parcel with sacrifice.  It also commands us to speak the truth with love.  It's pretty easy to make the case that if you are not speaking the truth you do not love. 

And there is the rub.  In our culture that views the slaughter of the unborn as a form of birth control, views homosexual marriage as just another option for couples, and is becoming more and more post-modern (and therefore more and more atheistic) if you speak the truth you will violate the fundamental tenet of Niceology: "Whatever you do, don't say something that could offend someone." 

The second tenet is like it: "Do not act as if you know the truth and someone else does not."  On these two laws hang all of the doctrine of Niceology.  We will refer to these two tenets as the "fallacy of nice."  It is a logical fallacy which states, "If you want to bring someone to Jesus you have to be nice."

Nice and Culture Do Not Mix

In our culture you will have to say things that are considered "not nice" in order to communicate truth that can either save someone from Hell or confront them in their sin or bad thinking.  This may involve the unpleasant term "sacrifice": as in you may have to sacrifice your reputation as a nice guy.  Or you may have to sacrifice a friendship.  Ironically, that may be the most loving thing you could do.  Jesus made Himself of no reputation in order to sacrifice Himself for our sins.  No one would accuse Jesus of being unloving, but He said some pretty direct things to those who opposed the truth as well as those who He brought to salvation. 

Was Jesus "nice" when He told the woman at the well that she had had five husbands and that the man she was currently living with was not her husband? 

Was Jesus "nice" when He called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones? 

Was Jesus "nice" when He drove the money changers out of the temple? 

How "nice" was it of Jesus to tell the rich young ruler that he needed to sell everything he had and give it to the poor to enter the Kingdom?  All the poor guy wanted was to follow Jesus!  As Kirk Cameron said in an old episode of Way of the Master, maybe Jesus would have benefited from a class in friendship evangelism!

The Fallacy of Nice in Action

I have seen the fallacy of nice play out on my Facebook wall.  Here's what you need to know about my FB profile:  I don't use my FB profile to post pictures of kittens, fortune cookie quotes, what I am having for dinner or comments on my favorite reality TV show (for the record I don't have one).   I have more than 2700 friends, many of whom are people who bought my book on evangelism or are into street evangelism, a few family members, and some unbelievers I have either known personally or who I have met on FB.  I use FB to address cultural and doctrinal issues with the truth. 

So here's how it works: some friend of mine who is a Christian sees something controversial that I have posted as a status update (BTW, this has happened more than once so if you think I am talking about you I suppose I might be, but it's happened enough times now that I might not be).  I get a private message from the Christian friend who: 1) is concerned that I am going to drive unbelievers away with such outrageous behavior, 2) thinks what I am doing is unBiblical, and 3) suggests a teaching or their own opinion on what an effective Christian does in evangelism. 

The essence of what they are saying is this: I know a better way than you do and for proof, here is an experience that I have had which proves you wrong, a verse or two taken out of context to prove you wrong, and\or a book from another evangelism expert that proves you wrong.  Apparently my experiences, Scriptures in context and my own book mean nothing.  The whole thing is tied up with a bow when they make (my personal favorite) the Westboro Baptist fallacy, comparing what I do to the Westboro Baptists who protest at military funerals and host websites and carry banners that say that God hates fags. 

Are They Right?

Of course not.  I have never received a private message like this from the unbelievers on my FB profile.  Bear in mind that I have had post-abortive women, gay rights activists, Mormons, atheists, Muslims, liberals and so on on my wall for years.  This explains why some of the threads run to more than 100 comments.  Many of these I know from face to face interaction (much like the Christians who criticize plain speaking).  Do you know what they say in private conversation? 

"I don't agree with what you say, but I respect your bravery." 

"Hey, I just moved across country and the people who were supposed to help me and my parents unload the truck aren't here.  Can you find someone to help us?"  This one came the same day I was catching flack from a believer from the town that this person had moved away from on a different issue.  We had contacted them to get this person help with food assistance but they never did it.  And I am the one who is not loving enough?   By the way, we found a group of believers who unloaded the truck in a couple of hours and left this family with the gospel. 

"If you Christians are so loving and all that, why don't you help me with some food?"  This came from a homosexual rights activist who we met at a gay pride event.  We raised $800 in a few days and bought her a couple of months worth of groceries.  It gave us the opportunity to buy her dinner, share the gospel with her for a couple of hours, and then continue an ongoing relationship that has lasted a few years where we've been able to share the gospel with her again. 

"I know you are a man of God.  Would you pray for my wife?  She has a rare cancer and is not expected to live.  Maybe God will hear your prayers."  Not much to comment on here since just typing this makes me tear up.  I cannot imagine.  Pray for Scott and Marilyn. 

"Would you read this paper I just wrote?  I would like your feedback."  I have had this a few times and haven't always been able to do it.  These requests have come from Mormons and atheists.

Many of these folks, and others, will private message me with specific questions about the gospel and cultural issues.


Perhaps the most recent example comes from an incident that happened just two weeks ago.  I was preaching on Hollywood Boulevard after we did some "man on the street" video interviews for our upcoming documentary on abortion called Babies Are Murdered Here.  We ran into one of the stars from the reality TV show, Bad Girls Club.  Rocky Santiago began heckling me as I preached the gospel and we dove into the issues of sin, hell, homosexuality and abortion.  A couple of videos circulated of our confrontation and I began to be labelled as a hateful preacher in a few places. 

What they did not see was the interview she granted us about ten or fifteen minutes later.  In that interview she began sharing about her rough upbringing and her desire to change her life.  I gently shared the gospel with her, she listened and even took a gospel tract with my email address on it.  We've not released this interview yet because we have plans for it on the documentary, but it proves the point.  Rocky respected me, probably because I was willing to take her abuse for a few minutes over the issues of the gospel.  And probably because she's not used to a man who will listen to her and tell her the truth rather than abuse her.

The Lies of Experts

Here's the deal: Christians have been lied to by the experts.  They have us believing falsely that confrontation and effectiveness are diametrically opposed to each other.  They say it cannot work.  What I have discovered is the exact opposite.  When you speak the truth in love--backing up the hard hitting truth with acts of love--people in our culture appreciate it because they cannot find too many Christians who will shoot straight with them.  They know we believe in sin, in Hell, in a God of wrath as well as a God of love.  They have seen too many Christians dance around the issues for fear of offending.  Do you know how they interpret that jitterbug around the truth?  They do not see you as loving.  They might think of you as nice.  But they will see you as nice in an insincere way.  They're not really sure that you believe what you claim to believe because in some cases they know what you believe better than you do.


In the meantime, I expect that as long as I keep posting things about our ministry at abortion clinics, the issue of homosexual marriage, calling out false teachers for their false teaching, and calling out the heresy of Roman Catholicism, I will be attacked by the Christians as being irrelevant.  From now on, I am going to ignore it.  I know what I do, what the Scriptures say and how this works. 

In part two, I will provide the Scriptural evidence for this approach.

Babies Are Murdered Here and Abolish Human Abortion

Local Church Relationship

This is an excellent message by my friend, Michael Coughlin.

A must listen.

Jodie Foster, "Coming Out" and Loneliness

OK, I don't know how many Jodie Foster movies I have seen in my life.  Not too many.  Contact, The Panic Room and a couple of the movies she made when she was a kid.  She seems like a great actress and the Golden Globe committee was right to honor her with a lifetime achievement award.

There's a lot of debate going on within the Hollywood community about her speech.  There seem to be two angles: 1) it was a little confusing or 2) it was pure genius.  I guess this will contribute to the mystique that is Jodie Foster.  Maybe that was the point.  Whatever her goal was, there are at least four lessons that come to mind for anyone who cares about the intelligentsia and media elite of this nation. There is also a message for Jodie Foster, a talented woman who is created in the image of God. 

Communication

Lesson #1:  Hollywood actors and actresses can only communicate when a professionally paid writer is drafted to write script for them.  

I am sure some will scramble to defend the intelligence of someone like Foster on this front, but one sign of intelligence is the ability to communicate what you are thinking without paid help.  By the way, I do understand that this could also be a dig against American presidents.  You can draw your own conclusions.

So, dear reader, what did Foster mean when she said, ""I am single. Yes I am, I am single. No, I’m kidding — but I mean I’m not really kidding, but I’m kind of kidding. I mean, thank you for the enthusiasm. Can I get a wolf whistle or something? [Audio is silent for seven seconds]."  Seven seconds?  That is eternity in dead air terms.  And why was it silent for seven seconds?  Because no one knew what the heck she was talking about.

This little whatever-you-call-it introduced a sort of "coming out of the closet" moment for Foster--at least that is how it is being interpreted.  This in spite of the fact that she has been apparently living with another woman for a couple of decades. 

What this part of the speech was is still being debated by those who observe the odd habits of the cultural elite because it wasn't clear.  Perhaps Foster's speech is an example of post-modernism taken to its logical conclusion.  However, here in the United States that exists outside of Los Angeles and New York City, we use clear terms to reveal what we're trying to say.  Especially if it's supposed to be a ground breaking moment like she built this up to be.

Genius

Lesson #2:  If said Hollywood actress is a recluse then her strange mumblings will be regarded as "genius."  

Maybe this is because they are just happy to get something out of their mouths other than "No pictures please!".  Even the Bible says that it's better not to talk so much because it is wise to keep your mouth shut (Proverbs 17:28).  This has been the perception with Foster because of her reclusiveness.  People have thought the same thing about author J.D. Salinger and Gretta Garbo.  It turned out later that they were just self absorbed narcissists who went crazy trying to protect their own god--themselves.  This just shows that someone appears to have the aura of wisdom because of their silence and good decisions they make about their careers.  Self worship is nothing more than insanity and Hollywood as a whole is Exhibit A.  People are created to give worship to the true and living God.  No one was ever created to receive worship.  When they do attempt to receive worship, it's awkward at best.  Anyone remember Sally Fields' much parodied, "You really like me!" Oscar speech? 

Depravity

Lesson #3:  Total depravity and the accompanying spiritual blindness that comes with it is praised as "bravery" in our culture.  

If nothing else, Foster at least introduced the merest possibility that she considers herself to be a lesbian.  Homosexuality is one of many, many sins that are condemned in Scripture. This sin does not condemn Foster (if indeed she is guilty of it) any more than her past lies, stealing, disobedience to parents, greed, self worship, etc., etc. condemn her.  It is all sin.

It's been more than fifteen years since Ellen Degeneres came out on her sitcom and every single time it's done it's called "brave" in spite of the fact that several states have legalized gay marriage and it's more likely than not that most of the rest will do so in the next five years.

Foster's sexual posturing is not brave.  It's not bravery when people flaunt their sin, no matter what it is.  The Bible has another word for it, at least in the old King James Version: "lasciviousness."  The word in the Greek means the public display of sexual promiscuity.  You can veil it with confusing words or postmodern humor but the fact remains that Foster stated that her view of sexuality does not measure up to God's and national television seemed to be a good place for her to announce it.  This is the natural outflow of total depravity and Hollywood is all too eager to push it in front of our faces.  In the meantime we are all too eager to support what they do when we buy tickets to their movies.  We've created and given them the platform.

If you're not convinced regarding the theology of total depravity, please read the Biblical description of human nature in Romans 3:10-18 and then we can talk.

A Cry

Lesson #4:  Foster's speech was more likely than not a cry for help.

In spite of all of the people she thanked, all of the joy she claims to have, and all of her success, her speech was a cry for help.  It's evident in the punch line at the end of it: "Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to be not so very lonely." 

Wait a minute.  We were treated to six and a half minutes of your assertions that the road you have chosen to walk in solitude has been "beautiful".  A few minutes later you are "lonely."

There's not a chance that Jodie Foster will ever read this, but I hope the readers will humor me for a moment.  Jodie, I believe that you are lonely.  Success does not bring happiness.  Anyone who watches coach Bill Belichick's face after the New England Patriots win yet another playoff game can see abundant proof of this truth.  Joy can only be found in the Author of it: God.  What you have done is what everyone does at one point: they pursue their rebellion against the Author of joy thinking they will find it only to find emptiness after fifty years of the pursuit.   You will never find joy in yourself.  You will continue to be lonely as long as you have yourself as your god.

It's interesting that God has existed from eternity past and never had a single human being to worship Him during all that time and yet He was perfectly content to express love within Himself being the Trinity.  As He stated at the baptism of Jesus, He was "well pleased" with Jesus and He was the object of His Father's attention ("beloved Son").  The truly beautiful thing is that God can love sinners if (and only if) they are "in Jesus".  God chooses to save sinners through Jesus Christ and only in Him can we be accepted and loved.  It is all for His glory and not our own.  Bow the knee to King Jesus and you will fulfill the purpose you were created for: to give Him glory and praise.  Jesus died for sinners and rose from the dead.  Turn away from your self worship and turn to Jesus in faith. 

"To the praise of His glory and grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."  (Ephesians 1:6)      

Babies Are Murdered Here: A New Documentary

Please take two minutes and watch this video. Please consider donating to support the production of this full blown documentary on preaching the gospel at abortion clinics. This video project is intended to mobilize the church to preach the gospel at abortion clinics. Before you ask whether or not we preach the gospel instead of "just" saving babies, the answer is we DO preach the gospel there. Do you? Do you love your neighbor enough to defend their lives? Please consider supporting this project. You can do so here.

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: A Review

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey Into Christian Faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Published by Crown & Covenant Publications (www.crownandcovenant.com).  154 pages, including a six page "Bibliography and Resources".  Available from the publisher for $12.00.   

When a friend recommended that I read this book, I wasn't terribly interested until I found out that the author was a former professor of English at Syracuse University who converted to Christianity.  When I found out that she is also married to a pastor who had done church planting with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the combination was enough to compel me to spend the twelve bucks and give it a go.  You see, I am a Baptist church planter in Syracuse, NY who has had the privilege of evangelizing students at SU.  If there's ever an "unlikely convert", it would be any professor from SU.

When I got the book I discovered that Butterfield was not only a professor at SU, but that she was also prominent in their feminist Women's Studies program and a lesbian. What I discovered in reading this book is that my attitude has a lot to do with the reason why my ministry amongst the liberal is so ineffective and not the perceived cultural strength of their worldview. More on this later.

A Reservation

I am reformed in my theology; perhaps not as reformed as Butterfield would like, but I do hold to the doctrines of grace.  Our understandings on conversion and the gospel are very much the same.  What is different is the unique perspective the author brings to the table having come out of not only the LGBT community, but having come out of academia.  Academia is a setting I know only a little bit about because of my work doing open-air preaching on college campuses over the last seven years.  I know the attitudes towards the gospel on campuses that range from small community colleges to Ivy League campuses.

Some of her writing betrays the fact that the author is either still holding on to some postmodern presuppositions or is infusing a forced relevance into her book to buy credibility with postmodern readers.  In the first chapter, "Conversion and the Gospel of Peace", she goes on a bit of a rant.  She complains that Christians lost the cultural battle with the universities and aren't relevant to the culture based on a flawed line of reasoning: "Here's what I think happened: since all major U.S. universities had Christian roots, too many Christians thought that they could rest in Christian tradition, not Christian relevance.  Too often the church does not know how to interface with university culture because it comes to the table only ready to moralize and not dialogue.  There is a core difference between sharing the gospel with the lost and imposing a specific moral standard on the unconverted" (7, emphasis mine).

Butterfield's husband is a pastor in the Reformed Presbyterian Church.  It is to the Presbyterians that we owe a huge debt for their understanding on the moral law of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments.  The Westminster Catechism, which Butterfield cites later in the book, is clear on the use of the Commandments.  The reason why Christians "impose a specific moral standard on the unconverted" is because GOD imposes that standard on all men.  As Butterfield's own testimony bears out, conversion doesn't happen through a dialogue which pretends that there are no moral standards.  Dialogue is valuable but it must be based on truth and part of that truth will be an appeal to the God who the atheists know is there (Romans 1:18-20) and to the moral law which has the power to bring sinners to the Cross (Galatians 3:24).

Have Christians assumed too much when it comes to the universities?  Sort of.  Like much else in our culture, we surrendered the universities in favor of a monastic existence.  It wasn't a passive act of resting in tradition.  It was an active, conscious decision largely influenced by theology which is reclusive rather than aggressive. However the answer to the dilemma is not to pretend that we don't have the answers or that Christ is not King of the university.  We do not need to negotiate the truth with unbelievers.  We need to proclaim it in Biblically saturated conversations, in the power of the Holy Spirit in a context of love.  That's how conversion works.  In the university setting at this point in history the people who deny what they know to be true have all of the power, as is evidenced in Butterfield's own post-conversion story.  You can own the ontological high ground but in universities it does not matter.  Those who hate the truth run the university.  And, as the twisted version of the Golden Rule goes, "He who has the gold makes the rules." 

Conversion

I am willing to overlook the author's minor shortcoming when it comes to this area because otherwise the book is so solid theologically, so well written, and because it exposes so many sins within the modern understanding of Christianity.  It exposes some of my own sins--my own lack of love, my own lack of effort. 

One of those flaws is how we view conversion.  Butterfield is right when she points out that Christians have distorted the concept of conversion.  She writes, "This word--conversion--is simply too tame and too refined to capture the train wreck that I experienced in coming face-to-face with the Living God (page x).  Everything she writes in this book about conversion has this radical, all encompassing aspect to it.  She rejects easy believism, she denounces Rick Warren's seeker sensitive drivel in no uncertain terms and she emphasizes that God chose her; she did not choose God.  How could it be any other way?  In fact, it IS no other way with anyone.  A feminist, lesbian tenured professor at a liberal institution of higher learning is not any more of a sinner or any more depraved than anyone else.  Romans 3:10-18 doesn't describe the worst case scenario; it describes ALL of us. 

If you're trying to see a liberal feminist converted and you are approaching her based on the myth of her free will, read these words carefully.  "I didn't choose Christ.  Nobody chooses Christ.  Christ chooses you or you're dead.  After Christ chooses you, you respond because you must.  Period.  It's not a pretty story" (81).

When conversion does come to the totally depraved it changes everything.  The author's conversion led to the loss of a secure, tenured position.  She lost respect in her community.  She lost friends.  She gained a church she is committed to.  She gained a husband and children.  She gained Christ and all that He is.  She says, "I sometimes wonder, when I hear other Christians pray for the salvation of the 'lost', if they realize that this comprehensive chaos is the desired end of such prayers" (page 27).  Later, closing the wonderful chapter on "Repentance and the Sin of Sodom, she says, "This was my conversion in a nutshell: I lost everything but the dog" (63).

Love

Consider the other flaw in modern American Christianity: how we love our enemies.  In short, we don't.  In fact, we're not even that sure about those who have converted if they have a pre-conversion background which isn't squeaky clean.  Some of this book is hard to read because the author has experienced the hatred of professing believers both before she was saved AND afterwards. By the way, other parts are hard to read because the author is going to expose you to truths you might not have considered before. 

Example number one: while counseling a lesbian who was a member of a Bible believing church, the counselee said, "Rosaria, if people in my church really believed that gay people could be transformed by Christ, they wouldn't talk about us or pray about us in the hateful way they do" (25).   Read that sentence a couple of times, think about your church, think about your own contribution to this, and ask yourself if you really do believe that homosexuals can be converted.  If a homosexual overheard those prayers or those conversations, would they feel loved? 

Example number two:  when Butterfield moved to the campus of Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA, the hub of the Reformed Presbyterians, the Scripture signs posted on the front lawns of believer's homes gave her pause.  She asked, "Perhaps I or one of my drag queen friends would be welcome to have a cup of coffee at one of these Bible-loving houses, resting our cups between sips on vinyl tablecloths in country kitchens.  Perhaps we would be talked with as people made in God's image.  But perhaps not" (67).  She follows this up with the poignant questions, "Do these Bible verses that sit as placards take up the same cultural space as the rainbow flag that once resided on my flag pole?  Are these 'Welcome' signs, or signs that read 'Insiders Only'?" (67-68).  Answer honestly: could you invite a drag queen and a lesbian into your home and genuinely love them while presenting the gospel?  Would you?  Would I?  How you answer this question determines, in part, how much you understand much of what Jesus taught on love and how much (or how little) you understand about your own depravity.  For my part, I don't like what I'm discovering about myself. 

Example number three:  years after her conversion her husband was going through the process of candidating at a RPC church and in the process one of the elder's wives read one of the drafts of one of the chapters in the book.  Here is her reaction with the author's commentary on it:

"A week later she came to talk.  She took a deep breath.  All the color drained from her face.  She looked like she had just witnessed a crime scene.  Manifesting disgust and horror, she told me that she wished that I hadn't shared this with her.  She quickly added, 'Oh, I'm fine with this information, but B (the other elder's wife) could never handle it.  Do you have to tell people about this?'  This.  Rosaria's unmentionable past.  Rahab the Harlot.  Mary Magdalene.  We love these women between the pages of our Bible but we don't want to sit at the Lord's Table with them--with people like me--drinking from a common cup.  That's the real ringer: the common cup--that is, our common origin in depravity.  We are only righteous in Christ and in him alone.  But that's a hard pill to swallow, especially if you give yourself kudos for good choices" (138). 

Not surprisingly, Butterfield's husband did not get that position.  Surprisingly, the Church of Jesus Christ doesn't know much about Him. 

This is just a sampling of what you will be smacked upside the head with when you read this book.  It deserves a wide audience.  Because I believe that, and because I believe that this book could be used of God powerfully amongst postmoderns and Christians, I plan on buying this book by the case to hand out.  I hope you will buy one copy, read it, and act on what you discover.