Comments on: Bill O’Reilly Talks To An Atheist on The Radio Factor http://thesmoakhouse.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/bill-oreilly-talks-to-an-atheist-on-the-radio-factor/ where there’s smoak, there’s fire Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:54:40 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: kev http://thesmoakhouse.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/bill-oreilly-talks-to-an-atheist-on-the-radio-factor/#comment-3382 kev Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:27:31 +0000 http://www.thesmoakhouse.com/index.php/2007/11/05/bill-oreilly-talks-to-an-atheist-on-the-radio-factor/#comment-3382 My first thought reading this was that "Kevin" has Christianity and the plot for the movie <i>Terminator 2</i> confused. If you replace the word "Christianity" with "robots" in his statement, I think you have a line uttered by Linda Hamilton somewhere during that movie. My SECOND thought was that Kevin's misconceptions could very well be traced back to a single Christian who gave him a very counterproductive "sales pitch" early in his life ("YOU'RE ALL GOING TO BURN...unless you say these 7 words out loud"). The scare tactic didn't work; instead, it closed him off to Christianity before he even knew anything about it. In the years since, the only things about Christianity his brain has absorbed are tidbits he took away from comments made by like-minded individuals or pop culture. Of course, it may not have gone down that way. But whenever I see anything like this, my mind immediately thinks, "someone ruined that guy/gal early in life." It might be known as a <i>Head & Shoulders</i> shampoo slogan, but it's true in all walks of life: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It makes me sad to think there are many Christians out there making bad first impressions (either by how they live their lives or how they try to "win" others for Christ). It makes me REALLY sad to think I might have done the same in the past... My first thought reading this was that “Kevin” has Christianity and the plot for the movie Terminator 2 confused. If you replace the word “Christianity” with “robots” in his statement, I think you have a line uttered by Linda Hamilton somewhere during that movie.

My SECOND thought was that Kevin’s misconceptions could very well be traced back to a single Christian who gave him a very counterproductive “sales pitch” early in his life (”YOU’RE ALL GOING TO BURN…unless you say these 7 words out loud”). The scare tactic didn’t work; instead, it closed him off to Christianity before he even knew anything about it. In the years since, the only things about Christianity his brain has absorbed are tidbits he took away from comments made by like-minded individuals or pop culture.

Of course, it may not have gone down that way. But whenever I see anything like this, my mind immediately thinks, “someone ruined that guy/gal early in life.” It might be known as a Head & Shoulders shampoo slogan, but it’s true in all walks of life: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

It makes me sad to think there are many Christians out there making bad first impressions (either by how they live their lives or how they try to “win” others for Christ). It makes me REALLY sad to think I might have done the same in the past…

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