While perusing popular forums here on Eons.com, I read a post denouncing a certain "Bible thumper." My immediate reaction was to mouse my way to the "Report Abuse" button. How dare anyone revile the tome I treasure! But on second glance I saw that the offender was referred to as "her," thus not likely me (this is no menopause mustache on my lip). Nevertheless, it made me stop and think. Maybe I need a bumper sticker that says "How's my witness?"

Since my earliest days (or daze) as a Christian, I have been a student of the word (and a disciple of The Word). From the beginning, I have been persuaded that getting others to read the Bible was one of the best things I could do. So I've looked for ways to point people to that wellspring of living water and tried to be the salt that makes them thirst. From time to time in my college and seminary years, I passed through the library and found the huge world globe turned so that someone could study the southern hemisphere. I would then leave a note saying simply "Acts 17:6" (looks like I did it again). ;-D

In that same period, I went with a carload of college classmates to the Urbana Missionary Conference. Departing the afternoon of Christmas 1976, we passed through Greenville, SC, on our way to the Interstate and points north. While stopped in traffic in the midst of the city, we were spotted by some "preacher boys" (aka, Bible beaters and Scripture screamers), no doubt from the local ultra-conservative Bible college, who loudly proclaimed we were on the road to perdition. I quickly rolled down the window and said, "No, we're on our way to a missions conference." The preacher was unpersuaded and continued his tirade. Unfortunately, our Bibles were packed in the luggage, so we could not show a "passport." We had joined the ranks of the thumped.

A couple of years ago at our denomination's annual meeting, a former Moderator and then President of our college made a marvelous speech on "finding the friction point," the place where Christian values engage the popular culture in ways that produce more light than heat. Our immediate reaction was to form a committee (we're Presbyterians, can you tell?) to study and report back. They're still meeting, occasionally leaving some interesting notes on our office whiteboard, though no official report yet. But they'll keep striving, and so will I, to find that point of contact. I want to avoid being like the "preacher boy" who thought he was the mouth of the body of Christ. God, grant me ears that hear, that I might engage in debate, not diatribe. Hey look! There's a Leave a comment link on this thing. If you click it, I promise to think (and pray) twice before hitting the Report Abuse button.

Pressly