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Hard question November 15, 2010 · 44:16 · 17 min

Obedience vs. show: the loving-God discussion

The hosts argue that 'love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind' engages the whole person — emotion and intellect — and that people relate to God the way they relate to people. They criticize performative faith: weeping at the start of a song, televangelist-style shows, and hypocrisy, called 'the single most prevalent complaint' about Christianity. An extended analogy compares emotion without obedience to a husband romancing his wife one night and bringing a prostitute to work the next; the hosts cite Hosea's marriage to a prostitute as Israel's example, 1 John 3:18 ('not with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth'), and the Colorado megachurch-pastor scandal. Dog-barbecue and 'come be a pansy for Christ' jokes punctuate the segment.

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