How To Talk To A Jerk
Welcome to the New America. Dubbed ‘God’s Comic’ by the New Yorker, for 16-years, Brad Stine has been the comedic trailblazer of politically incorrect, Christian and Conservative comedy. His new show, ‘Brad Stine Has Issues’, covers cultural issues with his signature brand of comedic sarcasm and satire with insight that will be appreciated by everyone who loves laughter, liberty, and the freedom to tell the truth without fear.
Hey guys, it’s God’s comic, Brad Stine. How are we supposed to deal with hateful people?
There are a lot of people in my life that I come in contact with that have one thing in common. They are jerks. I cannot stand them. These are people I do not want to be friends with. People I do not want to be kind to, people I would be happy if they were to suffer calamity and distress. If they were hanging off a cliff and I walked by not only would I not tend their wounds, bring them to the local Inn and ask the owner to watch over them till I returned and pay for it, instead as I saw them dangling I would prefer to surreptitiously step on their fingers in order to have the pleasure of watching them plummet to their demise. As of right now the majority of those people I am referring to are found on the internet. They leave comments on my thread and trust me when I tell you some of them are vicious. As a matter of fact, some fans believe I shouldn’t leave their comments up at all. They are usually chock full of epithets and scatological references. Hateful and insulting attacks on me, my faith and my point of view. I leave most of them up though because I want people to see what is happening out there in the real world. How callous and mean and even evil humans have become when given the opportunity to anonymously and without fear of physical reprisal feel safe and free to say things to strangers that are different from them. It always comes with a huge dose of self-righteousness of course as they literally are somehow unable to see just how cancerous and poisonous they are to a civil society. They spew their venom and justify it as helpful and deserving since the way they see the world is so altruistic and woke that anything they say to me or about me is what I deserve. They know that because they are self-appointed judge and jury. If they were able to step outside themselves for a moment and imagine what they would feel if suddenly out of the blue they posted a link to themselves performing their work task and someone were to come on their site, uninvited and say word for word the sentence they delivered to me they would be astounded at its callousness and its lacking anything resembling redemptive or helpfulness in any way. As a matter of fact, most of these folks are big advocates for hate speech laws and believe that words are actually violence and any words used to insult, harm, disparage or belittle and diminish another human should be outlawed. They actually believe that and yet are unable to grasp the irony that, under their definition, they would be the first to be sent to jail under their perimeters. One of the driving forces behind the woke movement is the belief that they are morally obligated to punish and hopefully harm and destroy those in society they deem unworthy of freedom. Now I have spoken about trolls on another episode of Brad Stine has Issues before so I don’t mean to be redundant. Again, I don’t mean to be redundant. What I actually am exploring today though is exactly this. What is MY obligation to them? Do I have any responsibility to treat them kindly or at least civilly irrespective of the fact that they are in no wise returning the favor? The truth of that premise is one of the great mysteries and yet unique concepts that came out of my belief in Christ as God on earth. See in order for my faith to carry weight it has to actually behave in real time but in order to do that it must first be understood and meditated on and then put into practice. You see I am going to be honest with you folks for a second. I have struggled mightily through my life with anger issues. I struggled for years with road rage and incredible anger with those who I believed treated me with no respect and dignity out in the marketplace. I have gotten into fights and screaming matches and dangerous behavior all while under the horrible possession of uncontrolled anger which as I mentioned in many cases could only be interpreted as rage. The conclusion of these incidents always left the world a little darker, a little more base and broken and was a terrible witness for the life and redemption I believe was administered to me when I became a Christ follower. Because my faith made the utterly unique and odd commandment that as a Christ follower I was obligated to love my enemies and pray for those that despitefully used me I was under constant self -condemnation that not only have a I failed my Lord again for the umpteenth time but have acted instead exactly like the natural man would be expected to behave when attacked. I wanted revenge. One interesting revelation I once received occurred when I was contemplating a specific political figure that I saw as so corrupt and evil as to fantasize all kinds of horrible tortures I could inflict upon them if only given the chance. I knew this person was a liar, and had used their position in politics to gather power, influence, money, possessions and status all the while selling out their country, their position and their integrity, if it ever existed in order to serve themselves. I even found myself speaking to God about this degenerate, malicious and malevolent individual and how long must I endure them? Where is the justice and the punishment that if anyone deserved it was them? I saw them and defined them as my enemy and not deserving of redemption. Yet God quietly and tenderly acknowledged her and said to me “Yes, she is all those things. She is also my daughter and she has lost her way. Will you pray for her and if you ever see her, could you tell her that her Father loves her, misses her and desperately wants her to come home? Somehow I have neglected to see people I despise as worthy of God’s love. Somehow as I managed to be insulted and shocked at the meanness and darkness others can bring my way I almost never considered that I was equally broken and sinful and undeserving of God’s grace. I needed God to be a loving, forgiving merciful Father to me because I couldn’t have survived any other way and yet I neglected to ever see my enemies through God’s eyes as His child by which His heart was broken. I heard 2 phrases in the past year that has helped change my eyes into Jesus eyes. The first was from the late apologist Ravi Zacharias. I realize since then that unfortunately sinful behavior of his has been revealed and is heartbreaking to those of us who were inspired by his work and my heart especially goes out to his victims and his family, nevertheless, all truth is God’s truth and so Ravi’s insight still is important. He said “behind every question there is a questioner” I also was inspired by this quote from the wonderful mathematician/apologist John Lennox who said “we as believers must seek to win the man, not the argument”. Consequently, I find myself renewing my mind and when I see the vicious comments sometimes left on my page I am learning, slowly to be sure, to separate my persona from the attack and instead see an angry and lost child who can’t find their way home. My calling as a believer is to realize my life has been redeemed for all eternity to be in the very presence of God. This brief moment on earth in the meantime is to be a sacrifice to the rest of humanity that deeply needs to know their creator and the living God. I am to be the antithesis of the natural man. I’m to be the opposite of what people would expect. I am to be a stranger in a strange land leading people home. I am to be better than I actually am and can only get there by being indwelled by the spirit of God. I am to live the supernatural…naturally. Loving my enemy may be the 2nd greatest gift Christianity ever gave the world. This is literally the only way the world has any chance at ever living in peace.
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