{"id":45209,"date":"2009-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-radicals-and-bad-radicals\/"},"modified":"2009-02-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-16T00:00:00","slug":"good-radicals-and-bad-radicals","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-radicals-and-bad-radicals\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Radicals and Bad Radicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian writer named Mike Barrett got interested in the idea of connecting with and learning from those who live a more radical faith. In an article for <em>Christianity Today<\/em>, he writes about a lesson he discovered along the way:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I began randomly interviewing strangers. Pity those like the woman in her mid-50s who sat on an airplane next to me between Portland and Denver. &quot;What do you think about Christian radicals?&quot; I asked her.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>She was not a fan. Modern radical Christians, she complained, have hijacked their faith traditions and changed the original intents. She mentioned people who picket abortion clinics as the perfect example. &quot;They don&#39;t seem very smart to me, because they don&#39;t understand the teaching of their own faith. They shove it down people&#39;s throats.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&quot;Those people,&quot; she concluded, &quot;are on the fringe to me.&quot; And she had no respect for anyone who was on the fringe.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Before returning to her Sudoku game, she paused thoughtfully, removed her glasses, and leaned over to say, &quot;Actually, the anti-war protestors of the Vietnam era were a <em>good<\/em> kind of radical.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>So for this random sample of one, carrying signs and marching can make you a radical. But [whether or not you&#39;re a good or a bad radical] depends on where you are marching and what&#39;s on your sign.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3361,3640,3749,3776,3854,3897,4087,4315,4520,4700,4900,5316],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,382],"class_list":["post-45209","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abortion","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-dedication","tax_ctp_tags-devotion","tax_ctp_tags-election-day","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-government","tax_ctp_tags-justice","tax_ctp_tags-national-sanctity-of-life-day","tax_ctp_tags-presidents-day","tax_ctp_tags-secularism","tax_ctp_tags-zeal"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Good Radicals and Bad Radicals - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/good-radicals-and-bad-radicals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Radicals and Bad Radicals - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Christian writer named Mike Barrett got interested in the idea of connecting with and learning from those who live a more radical faith. 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