Jesus Needs Better PR

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You just can't make this stuff up.  Reality is indeed weirder than fiction.

Yesterday, I read a piece on Religion News Service by Christian Pinkston.  He decried the "cannibalism" going on among his fellow evangelical Christians who, among other squabbles, are quibbling about the details of the He Gets Us campaign - which they feel does not tell the true gospel story.  In the piece, he reveals his role as the head of the PR firm for He Gets Us. I got curious about his background, and it didn't take long to discover that he was the Republican hacker behind the Swift Boat smear against John Kerry and the Weather Underground smear against Barack Obama. Two of the sleaziest media stunts in recent decades. (Read all about it here.)

I might have been the first to dig this up, but it wasn't rocket science to discover it.  And surely others would have sorted it out over time.  You can't hide this kind of thing for long. 

Christian Pinkston is the kind of Christian who has trashed Jesus' reputation by association.  I see no evidence of him getting down on his knees before God and asking forgiveness for what he did.  So what sense did it make to hire him to run a PR campaign to restore Jesus' good name?  What were these folks thinking?

Jesus needs better PR.  And since we don't have a billion dollars to squander on PR firms, it's up to us to take on the task.  It's time for progressive Christians to get busy and let the world know the Jesus we know.  Let us take advantage of the front-facing message of He Gets Us - which portrays Jesus as a pioneer of compassion.  And give people a viable alternative to the back-matter of He Gets Us, which funnels viewers into the universe of right-wing fundamentalism. 

Explore the deep and wide universe of resources for contemplative practice, study, activism, and worship at ProgressiveChristianity.org , and invite others to do the same.  (PR alert:  some self-promotion here, which you can tune out if you wish:  check out my own books and resources for individuals, families with kids, and churches here..... and introduce Jesus to curious friends by giving them my recent book, Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus.)

And more importantly, do something really, really radical:  invite people to join you in attending your local progressive Christian church.  And if they aren't nearby, send 'em the link to find the one nearest to them. 

Of course, we practice the best PR for Jesus by mirroring his compassion with our own, extending radical welcome and inclusion to all, loving even our enemies.  Because when we do so, we are his avatars – we are his ambassadors – we are his very being and personality in the here-and-now.