{"id":3998,"date":"2024-09-12T06:48:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T10:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3998"},"modified":"2024-09-12T06:49:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T10:49:23","slug":"two-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/12\/two-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

What\u2019s the number one thing that keeps spiritual searchers from walking through the doors of a church?

That\u2019s easy: Christians.<\/em>

Atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell famously said that he would believe in a Savior when his followers began to act as if they were saved.

Craig Detweiler, a Christian filmmaker, knows that secular artists can feel particularly hostile when it comes to the traditional church scene.

More than a decade ago he attended a sold-out showing of a virulently anti-religious movie at the Sundance Film Festival. 

In the movie, a suburban Southern Baptist family is killed in a car wreck on their way (of course) to church. In heaven, a tattooed Jesus sends them back to earth so they can live far happier lives the second time around \u2013 this time with few moral boundaries.

Their scandalized church friends decide to send them back to heaven, hopefully for good, by poisoning an apple pie. 

The crowd loved it. 

It didn\u2019t seem to be much of a stretch, after all, to imagine Christians as homicidally hyper-judgmental. 

After receiving a standing ovation, the director was asked if any conservative Christians had seen it. \u201cI\u2019m ready for that fight,\u201d he smiled.

That\u2019s when Detweiler, not even thinking about what he was doing, rose to his feet. Here\u2019s his own account of what happened next:

\u201cI struggled to compose my words.  My voice cracked slightly. I eked out, \u2018Jay, thank you for this film. As a native of North Carolina, a fellow filmmaker, and an evangelical Christian\u2026\u2019

\u201cI never use the word evangelical. <\/em>It is so loaded with negative baggage that I usually attempt to distance myself from such an association. But in this case, it seemed quite right. I was speaking for my community, responding to a particular stance we had staked out for ourselves.

\u201cJay stepped back, ready for that fight. He tensed up, preparing to launch a counterattack. The crowd sensed that things were about to get ugly. My next words caught them off guard: \u2018Jay, I apologize for anything ever done to you in the name of God.\u2019

\u201cThe entire tenor in the room shifted. Audience members in the room turned around. \u2018Did I hear that correctly?\u2019 They craned their necks. \u2018Who said that?\u2019

\u201cJay fumbled for words, not knowing how to respond. He was ready to be attacked.  He was not ready for an apology.

\u201cHe offered a modest, \u2018Thank you.\u2019 The audience was literally disarmed\u2026

\u201cAudience members approached me afterwards with hugs. A lesbian couple thanked me. Gay men kissed me. One person said, \u2018If that is true, I might consider giving Christianity another chance\u2026\u2019 

\u201cA simple apology set off a series of conversations and exchanges about our faith and how we live it.\u201d

Churches are willing to do almost anything to increase the foot traffic to their front doors: catchy slogans, fish fries, family nights, billboards, concerts, ice cream socials.

It\u2019s just possible that two words, spoken humbly and sincerely, will generate more good will and spiritual inquisitiveness than all those strategies combined:

We apologize. <\/em>
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What\u2019s the number one thing that keeps spiritual searchers from walking through the doors of a church? That\u2019s easy: Christians. Atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell famously said that he would believe in a Savior when his followers began to act as if they were saved. Craig Detweiler, a Christian filmmaker, knows that secular… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[493,131],"class_list":["post-3998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church","tag-humility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4001,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions\/4001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}