Not Your Usual Christian

Let me preface this article with the following disclaimer: No! The Humpster has not turned soft; isn’t in the throes of religious conversion; and is still the cantankerous anti-theist that has endeared him to you over the past two years. I promise that will never change.

But every now and then I meet a Christian, or read his works, and find myself surprisingly charmed and disarmed by their intellect and honesty. In my book I praised the Reverend Barry Lynn, an ordained minister, a believer, and the Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a staunch defender of the 1st amendment's establishment clause, as our Founding Fathers envisioned it. He’s my hero.

Joyce, one of our very few Christian visitors and commenters here and her husband Jeff, have become good internet friends with whom I can banter and challenge without it lapsing into a flame war or pointless proselytizing... by either of us. Just two examples of many believers who have my respect.

That said, I want to introduce Jason Boyett. Jason is a prolific author and a blogger of some fame. He has appeared on The History Channel and National Geographic Channel; and is a Christian who is so far removed from the caricature that we the thinking godless typically paint of Christians that he defies my ability to label him. I hate that!

Jason saw my Eternal Earth-Bound Pets site and asked to interview me for his blog. I was delighted and not a little surprised to find that he didn’t pass judgment on my perspectives, didn’t proselytize, didn’t censor or curtail my rhetoric. In fact, if anything, he made me sound more coherent than I am in real life. Then, as if that wasn’t surprising enough, his blog readership’s comments were as respectful of me and appreciative of my points as Jason was in his professionalism. Pretty refreshing.

Jason and I have exchanged books (he sent me three of his). I read the first one in a few hours. While I learned a lot, I am still scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck kind of Christian Jason is. He is irreverent, damn funny, and challenges Christian doctrine -- even questioning the bible and his own degree of faith. What’s up with that?!

With this as ground work I now encourage my readers to click on this link and read the two part interview I did with Jason. http://blog.jasonboyett.com/
Please scroll down to August 25th for Part 1, then up to August 26th for Part 2.
Don’t forget to check out the reader comments.

And if you want to get a whole new perspective on what a thinking Christian is all about, check out Jason’s Pocket Guides http://www.pocketguidesite.com/index.html . They are as entertaining as they are educational and as far removed from anything you’ve ever read on religion/Christianity.

While I’ll never respect “beliefs” of any kind, I have a profound respect for this kind of believer, and a new Christian friend in Jason. I will return to being my usual “ornery-anti-fundie-take no prisoners-foul tempered-spitting camel” self by my next blog posting. Promise.