While minding my own business in my favorite Barnes & Noble, reading Simple Church (great book for church leaders), I had a close encounter with the poster boy of the religious right, conservative republican, home-schooling, fundamentalist, fish bumper-sticker, God’s gym t-shirt, track distributing, loud, obnoxious, know-it-all, us-against-them, Rush O’Reilly, cultural-warrior Christian.
This guy was so loud that I had a hard time reading my book. I eventually moved to another part of B&N, but could not escape his running commentary on creation, abortion, church and state, the US Supreme Court, the 10 Commandments, church unity, cell groups, worship styles, pastors, youth ministry, restoration of fallen ministers, evangelism, Christian education. . .
Did he realize there were other people in the bookstore? Did he realize how loud he was? Did he care? Or, did he think that the rest of us wanted, or needed, to hear his opinions? Did he have an opinion on absolutely everything?
Weird thing is that I actually agreed with many of his opinions—just not the volume or venue of their expression.
How can a person be so smart and so clueless at the same time—simultaneously so right and so wrong?
It is not just WHAT we believe that matters but HOW we live those beliefs and how we communicate them to the people around us.