Gregory/Eric: You two quit acting like me ;) Save it for a serious discussion, like who won the civil war. (duck…...”crash”)

Richard: The questions are thought provoking, but somewhat biased. There are many Christians who have good relationships with lost people. No brag, but I am one of them. I think that is how I have managed to do my job and do it well here at OBI the last decade. I work at not treating lost people like they are a disease to be avoided. I genuinely like them, often better than I like my fellow Christians. But, the fact is that there are some areas where I am not going to share activities with my lost friends, and they wouldn’t want me to. I think Jesus was popular with people because he was loving, patient, fun, generous, a good listener, caring, etc etc etc. I also think he was different from those religious people who wouldn’t get down on the level with regular people. If we are like this, people will like us. But at the same time, as Gregory has pointed out, there were other areas were unbelievers did not like Jesus. I doubt that they really wanted him to use their profanity, visit prostitutes, be violent, steal, etc. And to that extent his light and ours- will cause a reaction in the darkness. I think Jesus responded to people as precious images of God, people of value and persons worthy of respect and compassion. Christians can do the same, but no one could relate like Jesus. I think most unbelievers avoid Christians because 1) they think we want it that way 2) we do want it that way or 3) they want it that way. If we would break the stereotypes, we would get a different reaction.