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I'm not a fan of Keith Olberman, but when I turned the TV on last night after returning from a Tin Caps baseball game, that's what was on (a vestige of watching Morning Joe earlier in the day). Olberman was interviewing a Muslim pastor (or whatever you call him) and an evangelical pastor, Steve Stone, from the Heartsong church in Memphis, Tenn.

When Stone heard that a new Memphis Islamic Center was locating next to them, he put a sign on the street that said, "Heartsong Church welcomes Memphis Islamic Center to the neighborhood."

The video clip above shows the entire interview on Countdown. (If you're reading this in Facebook, you'll need to click on the "View Original Post" link to view the video.)

Heartsong even let the Muslim congregation meet in their building while the Islamic center was under construction.

Stone says, "This place doesn't belong to us, it's God's place and we're just sharing it."

Over 100 Muslims would meet at Heartsong every night during Ramadan and put out floor mats to pray.

Stone said, "I understand the fear that people have about it, because if you don't know somebody, the first thing you're going to do is fear them....Our belief is let's get to know these people and see who they are, and so far our experiences have been very positive."

The interview on Countdown was superb, an example of what Christianity should be about. As Stone said, "The people across the street from us are Muslims, and Jesus taught us to love our neighbor, and they are our neighbors. We're loving them, and they're loving us back."

This doesn't mean Christians shouldn't try to convert Muslims to the true faith. But Stone's attitude will go a whole lot further than the Quran-burning fanaticism of Terry Jones in Florida.

I was also impressed with the words of the Memphis center's leader, Dr. Bashar Shala. Olberman mentioned how people in Muslim nations may assume that if the government doesn't prevent Terry Jones from buring the Quran, the government must be in favor of it.

Dr. Shala, who has lived in Memphis for 20 years, replied, "If you don't live in freedom, it's sometimes hard to fathom what freedom really means. That's the problem of communicating with those who don't have what we have."

Well said. And, Heartsong and Pastor Stone, well lived.

I was at a BP station buying two large cappuccinos--french vanilla for Pam, a caramel for me. A young black gal wearing a dress, very pretty, came up beside me and stood there for a few second.

"Excuse me," she said finally. "I have a magazine you might be interested in reading. It has some good articles about stress and...." She mentioned some other articles.

As hot liquid poured into a cup, I looked at the magazine. It was a small-sized publication called "Awake." The page she held open showed the name "Watchtower."

As I suspected, she was a Jehovah's Witness.

"No thank you," I told her.

I then continued filling the cups, and she continued standing there, waiting her turn.

"I'll bet you're from Jamaica," I said. Pretty obvious accent.

"Trinidad and Tobago," she said. "We're not far away."

"So I was close," I said. "I'm sure you would recognize the difference in speech between a Jamaican and someone from Trinidad, but I can't."

We exchanged a few more words, the I headed to the cashier while she got her own cappuccino.

As I drove away, I felt the conversation had been incomplete in two ways: I hadn't given a reason for my lack of interest in "Awake," and I hadn't affirmed her. Here's what I wish I had told her.

"I'm an evangelical Christian. But though we share different beliefs, I want to commend you for having the courage to share your faith with other people. I don't want to wish you success, but I do admire what you're doing."

Maybe next time.

So--what do you think would have been a good response to that young woman?

With Glenn Beck increasingly talking about God and Christ, and using the same terminology that Christians use, it's easy for Christians to assume, "He's one of us. He believes the same things." But he's a Mormon. The Mormons are adept at using our terminology, but giving it different meaning.

Now, he's using pretty specific terminology about salvation by faith in Christ alone, and he has presented the salvation message clearly on his show. Is he a born-again Christian living within the Mormon church? Is that even possible? Ed Decker writes, "Only after Beck announces that he is leaving the Mormon Church will I believe he is a Christian in a biblical sense." This is all very puzzling.

The fact is, Mormons differ substantially with Christians on every major doctrine. There is no compatibility. Mormonism is an entirely different religion. You can't be an evangelical Christian and a Mormon at the same time, anymore than you can simultaneously be a Buddhist and a Muslim.

Glenn Beck has an influential platform, and he declares himself as part of the Christian mainstream. He surrounds himself with persons with solid Christian credentials. Legions of Christians follow his program religiously. With Saturday's rally at the Lincoln Memorial, and his new group to organize pastors, Beck has positioned himself as a leader of Conservative evangelicals. As I said, it's very puzzling.

Richard Land, who directs public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention, and who doesn't consider Beck a Christian, says he was stunned by the "Restoring Honor" rally.

"His shows sound like you're listening to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, only it's more orthodox and there's no appeal for money...and today he sounded like Billy Graham."

So it's important to know, when he throws around Christian lingo, what he actually believes. When he talks about Christ or God or salvation, don't apply your own understanding of that word. As long as he identifies himself as a Mormon, those words have a different meaning based in Mormon theology.

I researched Mormonism years ago, but had forgotten much of it. So I did a quick refresher study, wanting to be reminded of the fundamental beliefs of Mormonism. Listen to Glenn Beck all you want. Join his causes. Just be aware of what his religion is all about.

God. God was once a man named Elohim living on another planet, who became a god by following the laws of that planet's god. He then came to earth with his wife, and they produced offspring--Jesus, Lucifer, and all the rest of humanity. God is not a spirit, but has a flesh-and-bones body. Mormons say, "As man is, God was. As God is, man shall become."

God says in Isaiah 44:6, "I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me." Mormons don't believe that.

Jesus. Jesus was merely the first child of God. Lucifer was the second child, and you and I are equally children of God (Jesus is our oldest sibling). Jesus is now a god.

Trinity. Rather than God in three persons, the Mormon trinity involves three separate persons--the god who rules our planet, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (the only god who doesn't have a body).

Bible. The Bible is accurate only as far as it is correctly translated. Mormons believe it has been corrupted over the years. It is basically trustworthy, but not infallible like the other Mormon holy documents: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.

Book of Mormon. An angel directed Joseph Smith to some gold plates, which he translated. The Book of Mormon is more authoritative than the Bible. It contains a lot of really strange stuff.

The Church. The church is the Mormon church with its organizational structure and laws, not the universal body of believers. Mormons view themselves as the true church of Jesus Christ. After Christ's death, the church fell into apostasy. When Joseph Smith came along in the 1800s, the true gospel hadn't been preached for 1800 years. Thomas A'Kempis, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley--all heretics.

Man. We exist as spirits in heaven until we are given human form as babies, at which point our memories of preexistence are wiped out. We all have the chance to become gods of our own planets.

Salvation. Mormons achieve perfection not through Christ's atoning death on the cross, but by works--by following the tenants of the Mormon church.

Former Mormon prophet Spencer Kimball wrote, "One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation."

Christ's sacrifice is not enough to cleanse us from our sins. Good works are necessary. Also: There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God. (Brigham Young wrote that only polygamists would become gods.)

Baptism. It's necessary for salvation. Your ancestors can be baptized by proxy, which is why Mormons are so big on genealogy research. (Christians believe baptism is an important ordinance, but not necessary for salvation.)

Heaven. Everyone will go to one of three levels of heaven. The Celestial Kingdom is for Mormons who become gods, the Terrestrial Kingdom is for moral people and lukewarm Mormons, and the Telestial Kingdom is for everyone else.

Hell. There is no eternal punishment. Hell is just a temporary place between death and resurrection. "Eternal damnation" refers to anything less than becoming a god.

Living Prophets. The head of the Mormon Church is a living prophet whose pronouncements carry more weight than scripture. Brigham Young believed his sermons were equal to Scripture. "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture."

David Barton tells Christians to ask, "What fruit do you see produced by Glenn?...Christians concerned about Glenn's faith should judge the tree by its fruits, not its labels,"

That is a dangerous, dangerous attitude. It is not our works that make us Christians, but our faith in Christ. We can find good, moral people doing great work in every religion, including atheism. But their fruit doesn't make them fellow Christians.

Ed Decker describes the problem this way:

Beck = Christian,
Beck = Mormon
Mormon = Christian

Just because you like what Glenn Beck declares regarding President Obama and the Founding Fathers and everything else, don't assume that he is a brother in Christ.

Matthew 24:24--"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect."

I think this video clip from Texas pastor Matt Chandler is right on. He talks about the "de-churched," the growing phenomenon in the United States of young people who are abandoning the church. My church, Anchor, has often referred to itself as a church for the de-churched--people who once attended, but had a bad experience or became disillusioned or whatever. Lots of different reasons. But Chandler hits one valid angle.

(If you're reading this on Facebook, you'll need to click the link for "Read Original Post" to view the video clip on my blog.)

Chandler says, "They were sold, 'Here's how you put God into your debt.'"

I think that's a great way to put it.

You behave yourself, follow the rules, do good things, attend church regularly--all the things a Christian should do. And in return, we promise, God won't let anything bad happen to you. You'll have a wonderful life. Everything will work out." Because God is obligated to come through for you. It's an evangelical, tone-down version of the Prosperity Gospel.

Then, when things don't go according to their wishes, they bail out on the church. It's not what they were promised. The Christian life isn't supposed to be difficult. The church deceived them. Their investment turned sour.

Skye Jethani talks about this further on Christianity Today's "Out of Ur" blog. He writes:

They believe that if they just follow God's rules he will bless their lives. When things fail to work out as promised, they bail on the church....

It's not that we are failing to preach the gospel, but that we are failing to deconstruct the consumer filter through which people twist and receive it. The result is a hybrid consumer gospel in which God exists to serve me and accomplish my desires in exchange for my obedience....

I think there are plenty of people willing to deny themselves and take up their cross. But we too often neither ask that of people, nor even present it as something they might consider doing. Instead, people just hear the false gospel of sugar and spice and everything nice. And when they encounter something that's not nice, that's difficult, their consumer mentality draws their attention elsewhere.

I picked this out of an email someone sent me.

Noah drank too much
Abraham had no idea where he was going
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Sampson was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Daniel was thrown to the lions
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was stubborn
Timothy had an ulcer....
AND Lazarus was dead!

One of the blogs I follow is Larry Osborne Live. Osborne is a pastor in Florida who wrote "A Contrarian's Guide to Spiritual Growth." That book takes a new look at some of the assumptions we Christians have about God and the Christian life. It stretched me.

He recently wrote a post called, "Why I'm Pumped about the Future of the American Church." He begins, "It's fashionable to decry the current state of Christianity in America. But frankly, I don't buy it. Some of the most popular conference speakers on the circuit today excel at drive-by guiltings. They paint a picture of a church that lacks guts, cowers from dying to self, and lives out a self-satisfied, what's-in-it-for-me Christianity....But I just don't agree on this issue."

Yes, it's easy to be negative, to lambaste Christians and the contemporary church for being weak, ineffective, blah blah blah. Why do we so enjoy self-flagellation? Does it really serve a purpose? Does it rally the troops in some way? Not that we need to always feel good about ourselves and reinforce our fragile self-esteem. But come on, we're not always a bunch of losers.

Anyway, Osborne then talks about the early church of Acts, which we tend to idolize and treat as a model for today. But his observations are not so Utopian. Some excellent observations.

I've felt the same way, basically. I don't view what happened in Acts as a model for all of us to follow, but mostly as a record of what happened. Just because the early Christians did things a certain, that doesn't mean we're supposed to. They were making it up as they went, trying to figure out this whole New Covenant thing and what it meant in terms of church life and behavior. In Acts, Luke tells what they did. It's not supposed to be a blueprint for everyone to follow until Christ returns.

That's my view, anyway. I in no way want to lessen the authority of God's Word. But sometimes we give authority where it doesn't belong, where the purpose was more history than teaching. Call me a heretic.

Rick Pride, a United Brethren pastor in Columbia City, Ind., left the following as his Facebook status. I like it.