Originally posted by Crow
Whispers, that is just too funny.
I am a Christian because of Bob Enyart. I originally started watching his show primarily for entertainment's sake--I used to get a big kick out of what a jerk Bob Enyart was. He was much more entertaining than a couple of my other favorite comedy shows--Ron Parsley and Benny Hinn.
Bob was really offensive. He mocked and criticized many things that I felt were perfectly OK, like sexual immorality, atheism (I was one at the time) and abortion. Then after the "Bible verse" warning, he'd show you in the Bible where God said how disgusting these things were.
A funny thing happened. I started to realize how disgusting the things I did and believed in were to God, if He existed. How utterly revolting my lifestyle was. I started thinking about how really evil it is to kill an unborn kid. I began to see "victimless" sexual crimes in terms of families destroyed and diseases being spread throughout society. Drugs in terms of babies born addicted, and kids neglected because daddy and mommy are stoned. My views were undergoing a gradual change.
I still didn't believe in God, but I was seeing consistancy in the Bible for the first time. And the Christ Bob Enyart talked about wasn't the puerile effeminate Christ I had learned about in church and Sunday school so many years earlier. I was hearing about a different Christ--one who spoke His mind, who didn't just stand around beaming benignly and saying pleasant things. I hauled out a Bible--yes, I had one lying around--and I started to look at things Bob had pointed out, and he was right. The stuff I had been taught that made me reject Christianity as the domain of the do-gooders and mentally challenged..it wasn't in there.
I kept hearing about "The Plot" on the show. After deliberating for a month, I kicked $50 for the Plot just to see what it was. At this point, the Christian religion wasn't looking as bad to me as it had. Of course, I could never do all the things you're required to do to go to heaven--never swear, never have a good time, and have your butt planted in a pew every Sunday. But Bob made a lot of sense most of the time, so I figured it would be a pretty good read.
I got "The Plot" early one afternoon 4 years ago. I couldn't put it down. Pieces started falling into place. I could see the stupid misconceptions I had explained, and I saw the Christian faith in it's entirety, the interrelation of the different sections of the Bible, the unity, logic in dealing with criminal acts, just a deluge of information. I think I read for about 14 hours straight. Early that morning I accepted Christ as savior. I had never seen Him, but He had been there all along--hidden by layers of man-made religion.
Whispers, if someone hears Bob Enyart and gets offended, then great. They need to be offended. They need to become so offended that they stop doing the revolting thing they're doing or thinking. And I don't know how much you know about Bob Enyart--probably not a lot--he criticizes the way he used to live and points it out to people as evil, and tells the consequences of his actions as an example so that others might avoid the pain he put himself through. He doesn't sugar coat, and he's not a hypocrite.
And as for that poor hypothetical homo listening to the radio that gets so hurt and offended by Bob Enyart blasting him--Good! He needs it! All of the nicey-nice people who tell him that Christ died for him and leave out the other part--that God says homosexuals should be put to death, and that they're vile and disgusting to God--those nice concilliatory Christians are not helping that poor homo change his lifestyle. They are enablers. And they misrepresent God. They are either bait-and-switch salesmen, or so deceived in and of themselves that they simply do not know truth from lie.
I had laughed at the too pure for this world Christians that tried to win me over to their gelded vision of God for years. You can criticize Bob Enyart all you want, but the fact remains--I would not be a Christian if not for his attacks on the stupidity I did and believed.
