Misrepresenting God

Here is some more from Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What. Here he talks about media heads who claim to represent God, but in actuality, are misrepresenting him. He tells the sad story of the conman Robert Tilton (you may recognize as the "farting preacher") who was outed for collecting money from sweet (yet stupid) little old ladies to fund his greed. He goes on to say this:

The real thing that made me sad that day was that God, who I think is quite good, was being misrepresented so terribly in the media. I realize it isn't popular to say such things, that as a Christian writer I should keep my mouth shut and kiss everybody's butt, but it is difficult to do so when there are so many media-savvy idiots pretending to represent Jesus. just this morning I watched a fellow on his Christian talk show talk about what we should be doing in Iraq, how we should be starving out clerics and sending more troops to shoot more bullets and drop more bombs. He's a preacher, for crying out loud. Why doesn't he just tell people about Jesus?

If I weren't a Christian, and I kept seeing Christian leaders on television more concerned with money, fame, and power than with grace, love, and social justice, I woulodn't want to believe in God at all.

This could not come at a better time, with 'ol Pat Robertson again making all Christians look like idiots and predicting a major terrorist attack this year. Thanks for the kind words, Pat. Way to stay positive.

Seriously, though, why isn't the Christian message in the media balanced? We seemed to have somewhat balanced political banter, why can't we have balanced Christian banter? Why are the Christians you see on TV all the time the weirdos?

I have a theory, of course. The Christians you see on TV tend to be in the prosperity class of ministers (i.e. those who believe that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy). That message preaches much better to Americans, sadly, than the true Gospel, where Jesus basically says, "Come, follow me. Everyone will hate you, and you will have to give up everything, even your own life, but you will get fulfillment through me, and your life will not be boring." As Donald shares when he speaks, take Peter for an example. He owns a successful fishing business. Jesus calls him out of that to follow him around confused for a few of years. Then Peter denies him and generations read about it. Finally, he and his wife get crucified upside down (according to church tradition). come on and sign up, y'all. That won't sell as many prayer shawls on TBN.

I understand that my thoughts on this are all over the place. I am basically just ranting. In the end, the point I want to make is that Christians in the media have been misrepresenting God for years, and I, for one, am sick of it. May we never give into pop Christianity. May we never comprimise the message to what is easy and comfortable. I choose to follow Jesus, for He is my reward.