Tonight I called into a radio talk show for the first time in my life. I don't do that sort of thing, I'm not that sort of person. But I put on kfax on my way home because it occasionally has good programs but this time a show called Lifeline was on. I usually don't listen to this show because I am often annoyed by the typical judgmental self-righteous Christianese noise that comes from it. Well today I made the mistake of listening and I couldn't turn it off. They were talking about a Carl's Jr. ad including Hugh Hefner with the tagline "because some men don't like the same thing every night."

I listened for about ten minutes of the hosts talking about this commercial with one ditto caller after another talking about how awful it was and how they would boycott Carl's Jr. and I was thinking about calling in. The whole tone was negative and they kept talking about the decline of our nation and how people will go out and sleep with the neighbor's wife because of these ads. What was probably the sealer for me was the fact that they actually laughed when a caller made a connection between mad cow disease being bad, promiscuity being bad, and "eternal flames" being bad. So these hosts of a Christian talkshow are laughing about people going to hell.

I called up and said that while the commercial is of dubious moral character, and CJ's shouldn't try to deny it's talking about sex with different women, they should have better things to talk about. They should maybe talk about why the commercial appeals to men or how we as Christians can contribute in a positive way to changing the environment. I said if I weren't a Christian and I happened upon the show I would be pretty upset at the fact that Christians are sitting there talking crap about CJ's moral failings and laughing at the fact they believe I am going to hell.

They let me talk, and then talked about how it's important to engage culture, and they're helping to start watercooler conversations where people can witness to their friends. Hopefully they'll speak in an encouraging way rather than simply condemning their friends for this moral bankruptcy. Hopefully they'll leave out the part about eternal separation from God being funny. (Although the radio hosts did try to say they weren't laughing about someone going to hell, so at least they don't think it's okay to do so. Good thing they cleared that up.)

Sometimes the modern Christian culture really bugs me.