Tension and encouragement …

Often when I speak, there are people in the audience who want or need to do a little inquisition in the Q & A sessions … I certainly appreciate respectful disagreement and dialogue, but when people feel the need to mock or drop the “H-bomb” (heretic) or create some kind of win-lose scenario, it does get draining. After a recent talk at a Christian college where a bit of this went on, I had several people come up and say, “Please don’t let those comments get you down. If it hadn’t been for your books, I would have left the faith…” I just received this note along similar lines …

I was in the audience tonight …, and just wanted to be one of the ones who sent a thank you your way for your kind, humble, yet firm responses. As faculty here … [we] often experience isolation because we don’t hold views similar to some of the more oppositional ones voiced tonight. I am very grateful your willingness to speak in love in places that aren’t always receptive to your message.
Being on the ground here, we hear frequently from students who feel they don’t fit into the ‘accepted system’ and, like you said tonight, are on the way out the door. Thanks for speaking to them tonight. They hear you, and breathe sighs of relief to be introduced to your perspectives.

I was especially disappointed by some of the responses, because I was talking about …

… global crises, and many of the people in the Q & A session just completely ignored everything that had been said about poverty, environmental destruction, and war, and instead focused on intramural Evangelical controversies. That’s why another note I received today brought a lot of encouragement …

I thank God for you and what you shared with our community tonight …. I wish that I could tell you how much it means to me to watch and hear you address matters of great importance in the world even in the presence of those who would elevate their own dream for the world above discovering what God’s is. Please know that my life has been forever changed via your articulating the true hope of God’s good news to the world.