A: Well I\u2019m a journalist by training, degree and profession originally, and so writing is my first love. I\u2019ve had a previous book that I published some years ago and I continue to write. I\u2019ve blogged for beliefnet.com<\/span><\/a> for a year. We helped US News and World Report launch a faith column every week now, so I write for that and have writers contribute to that, so writing is not too foreign to me. \u00a0It\u2019s been that I\u2019ve been so busy doing everything else that I\u2019ve just decided at this point to do the book because I felt that was something on my heart. So I wrote it! <\/span><\/p>\n Well it seems really appropriate timing! Is this something you felt a time sensitivity to?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A: No, I wasn\u2019t planning on timing, I just think its God\u2019s timing when things intersect, and so if its the right time that\u2019s great. I didn\u2019t plan that – so\u2026here we are!<\/span><\/p>\n What was your purpose in writing The Politically Incorrect Jesus?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n A: As I look at the cultural landscape I have seen what I call a true intellectual dishonesty in the politically correct agenda. It asks us to assent the things we don\u2019t believe, to believe in things which aren\u2019t true, and they call that honesty. I\u2019m saying this is just a bunch of nonsense, and as a journalist the object is to illumine what others cannot see, and if you illumine that which is untrue and decide to not talk about that which is obvious what good does that do? Where is the integrity? I saw this great disparity between what is being mouthed and what is honest, and I decided to take a poke at some things, so that\u2019s why I wrote it.<\/span><\/p>\n In your book you talk about the battle lines and the culture wars – can you explain what you mean by that?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n A: Let me put it this way. Jesus came to redeem culture, not condemn it. As such, he is above culture, so when you try to fit him into culture in some way you have a real problem. He doesn\u2019t fit. <\/span><\/p>\n Let me illustrate by an example in scripture – we all know the story of the woman caught in adultery. The politically correct police of His time, the Pharisees, brought her before him to condemn her. Jesus rises above all of that and offers something that the politically correct agenda cannot offer, and that is forgiveness, and it is not in their vocabulary, because condemnation is not born out of love, and so forgiveness is. He surrounds people with His compassion and His tears and His forgiveness – there is no response to that, because it is above the politics and polemics of political agenda, political correctness embraces. I often use a quote from my buddy Steve Brown who said, \u201cRighteousness without tears is arrogance. And the world has seen too much of our righteousness and too few of our tears.\u201d When Jesus brings His compassion, tears and forgiveness to someone it then gives Him and us the permission to put our arms around someone and say go and sin no more, because it is born out of love and people see that. There\u2019s the big difference, when you bring people to the foot of the cross – the biggest level playing field of all time. People understand that it is there because of love, not of condemnation, and that\u2019s why the politically correct agenda is heartless. Because it lacks honesty. It asks us to believe in things which aren\u2019t true, and it can only offer condemnation and not forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n What do you hope the takeaway is for people who read your book?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n I trust that the book can be seen as a working manual of how we as believers might be able to rise above the culture war, any war, any confrontation and offer the things that Jesus offered. I hope it\u00a0helps us to rethink how to respond to culture and be that bright shining light – become the salt and light again. Because we are called to be that. We aren’t called to be\u00a0chameleons, to blend in and not be seen, which is what the politically correct agenda would have us do. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wandertruenorth.comwp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/url.jpg?resize=225%2C225&ssl=1\")
Tell us a little bit of your journey from owning a media company to being a writer, and kind of how you make these worlds work together?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n