(HT:Z)

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(HT:22 Words)

What people don’t know is that the Christmas special almost didn’t happen, because some not-so-smart television executives almost didn’t let it air. You see, Charles Schulz had some ideas that challenged the way of thinking of those executives 46 years ago, and one of them had to do with the inclusion in his Christmas cartoon of a reading from the King James Bible’s version of the Gospel of Luke.

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Aaron Sorkin is a pretty phenomenal writer, responsible for movies like A Few Good Men and The Social Network and the television drama The West Wing.

Pixar is a pretty amazing motion picture company. Cars, Finding Nemo, Up, Monster’s Inc. – you know the drill.

And Steve Jobs was, well, Steve Jobs.

Here’s how the record of the conversation between these two guys went according to Sorkin:

(long silence)

I told him I’d take him up on it and I never did. But I still keep thinking about that Pixar movie.

Ambani purchased land on one of the most expensive streets in Mumbai and began constructing Antilia, a towering structure that will serve as the 400,000 square foot home for his wife, three children and 600 staff members.

It’s 567 feet high.

It has 27 floors.

Each floor in the complex offers something different and there are no identical floor plans.

The Ambani family will occupy only the top four floors. Conveniently, there are still 23 other floors for luxuries such as parking space for 168 cars, a health spa, swimming pools, a movie theater and three spectacular hanging gardens spaced at different levels of the building. All told, the house will come with a price tag over $1 billion.

Here’s the thing, though. If you stand on the top, there is evidently an amazing view of the Arabian Sea. Also, the slums of Mumbai are clearly visible. Can you imagine that – standing on the top of a 27 story, 1 billion dollar home and looking down at the slums?

What kind of person spends his money on things so lavish and so expensive when some of the poorest people on the planet are so close at hand? Who could possibly live in such luxury with the knowledge of such poverty?

Who?

Ummm…

Wait a minute…

Host: You are a Christian pastor, and you say you believe the Bible, which means you are supposed to love all people.

Pastor: That’s right.

Host: But it appears to me that you and your church take a rather unloving position when it comes to gay people. Are homosexuals welcome to come to your church?

Pastor: Of course. We believe that the gospel is a message relevant for every person on the planet, and we want everyone to hear the gospel and find salvation in Jesus Christ. So at our church, our arms are outstretched to people from every background, every race, every ethnicity and culture. We’re a place for all kinds of sinners and people with all kinds of problems.

Host: But you said there, “We’re a place for sinners.” So you do believe that homosexuality is sinful, right?

Pastor: Yes, I do.

Host: So how do you reconcile the command to love all people with a position on homosexuality that some would say is radically intolerant?

Pastor: (smiling) If you think my position on homosexuality is radical, just wait until you hear what else I believe! I believe that a teenage guy and girl who have sex in the backseat of a pick-up are sinning. The unmarried heterosexual couple living down the street from me is sinning. In fact, any sexual activity that takes place outside of the marriage covenant between a husband and wife is sinful. What’s more, Jesus takes this sexual ethic a step further and goes to the heart of the matter. That means that any time I even lust after someone else, I am sinning. Jesus’ radical view of sexuality shows all of us up as sexual sinners, and that’s why He came to die. Jesus died to save lustful, homo- and heterosexual sinners and transform our hearts and minds and behavior. Because He died for me, I owe Him my all. And as a follower of Jesus, I’m bound to what He says about sex and morality.

Host: But Jesus didn’t condemn homosexuality outright, did He?

Pastor: He didn’t have to. He went to the heart issue and intensified the commands against immoral behavior in the Old Testament. So Jesus doesn’t just condemn adultery, for example, as does one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus condemns even the lust that leads to adultery, all with the purpose of offering us transformed hearts that begin beating in step with His radical demands.

Host: You say he condemned adultery, but he chose not to condemn the woman caught in adultery.

Pastor: That’s right, but He did tell her to “go and sin no more.”

Host: But who are you to condemn someone who doesn’t line up with your personal beliefs about sexuality?

Pastor: Who am I? No one. It’s not all that important what I think about these things. This conversation about homosexuality isn’t really about my personal beliefs. They’re about Jesus and what He says. I have no right to condemn or judge the world. That right belongs to Jesus. My hope is to follow Him faithfully. That means that whatever He says in regard to sexual practices is what I believe to be true, loving, and ultimately best for human flourishing – even when it seems out of step with the whims of contemporary culture.

Host: But you are judging. You are telling all the gay people watching this broadcast that they are sinners.

Pastor: I’m not singling out gay people. I’m pointing to Jesus as the answer to all sexual sinfulness.

Host: But you are referring to gay people. Why are you so focused on homosexuality?

Pastor: (smiling) With all due respect, you are the one who brought up this subject.

Host: Are you saying that you can’t be gay and Christian?

Read the rest here.