Loving with an Agenda

A couple weeks ago, I asked this question in a sermon: "Am I being unloving if I build a relationship with someone simply to share the gospel with them?" (ie. Is it wrong to love someone with an agenda?). The context of this question was Luke 16: 1-13 and my main point -- "Use $ & Resources for your own eternal good -- by making friends for the sake of making of gospel connection with them" (that passage is a toughie).

So I argued YES to the above question -- as making a gospel connection with someone is the most loving agenda possible.

This week I ran across this from Atheist Penn Jillette (LEFT) that I thought I'd throw out there as it comes from someone who'd have every reason to feel "used" by any so-called agenda. Penn Jillette is one half of Penn and Teller, a duo that has been headlining Vegas shows for years with comedy and the art of illusion. Penn has never been shy about his disbelief in God, often writing about his conviction in articles and best-selling books. Yet in an on-line video blog that can be found on YouTube, Penn shares a story about the time a gracious Christian businessman gave him a Bible as a gift. Penn goes on to use the story as an opportunity to point out that Christians who don't evangelize must really hate people. Here's the direct quote from his video blog:

I've always said, you know, that I don't respect people who do not proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, uh, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think that people shouldn't proselytize, [saying] "Just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself"—uh, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize them? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you, and you didn't believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.