15 Comments

  • G. Kyle Essary

    Matt,
    I actually think that Dr. Jeffress did a great job. That’s a tough audience obviously, but he was clear enough.

    For someone who claims to be “more rational” than Christians, has Maher honestly not looked into it enough to realize that evangelicals claim all of Scripture is God’s Word and therefore the words in black are as valuable as the words in red? He seemed really shocked by that at the end.

  • Scott Maze

    Thank you for posting this. This appearance by Robert Jeffress was as good as John MacArthur or Albert Mohler on Larry King Live.

    There was a clear presentation of biblical authority, the nature of salvation and salvation’s result of good works, as well as why personal retaliation is wrong in contrast with a government’s authority.

    • Derek

      He didn’t have more than a few seconds to reply to the question about the role of gov’t, but it’s too bad that he couldn’t describe how Christ showed so much deference to the authority of Rome that it angered many Israelites. Paul’s statement in Romans 13, not to mention all of I Peter, is not at odds, but consistent with Christ’s words.

  • Christiane

    Well, Pastor Jeffress puts it ‘out there’ for what it is.
    And some people support him and his candidate of choice, Rick Perry.
    And some people disagree with him.

    My question is WHY does the Christian far-right get ‘shocked’ when people oppose their brand of Christianity?

    I think the ‘shock’ is almost like whining. It doesn’t do any service to the far-right.

    I like Pastor Jeffress’ honesty about his beliefs, I disagree with him mostly, but I appreciate his honest and open persona.

    What I like best about him is that he is not afraid to go out into arenas like Maher’s and be himself and be civil. Not too many can handle that.

    Jeffress put ‘it’ out there. Perry is still in the race. So is Romney.
    Sometimes things work out after all. It’s when people in our country FEAR to talk to one another that we should worry . . .

    Pastor Jeffress I can appreciate as a person who has integrity.
    I disagree with his views. But good for him, that he is a civil person who is able to handle a discussion among those not of his kind, still be himself, and allow them to have that same privilege. I like him.

  • Jack Wolford

    Bill Mayer is normally the most abusive of interviewers around but considering he was rather kind with Jefferss. It suggests their was a prior agreement between the two before the program and that’s not a bad idea at any time.

    • Christiane

      Maybe Maher thought that Jeffress was real, and not a hypocrite.

      I can see that in the interview clearly, because Maher has had plenty of hypocrites on his show and he WAS not ‘relatively kind to them’ at all.

      If Maher hates hypocrisy and respects honesty, he can’t be all bad.

  • Bill Pfister

    At first when I saw this I thought the worst…that Bill Maher was going to abuse and belittle Pastor Jeffress, but I came away impressed with how gracious, articulate and kind the pastor was.

    • Denny Burk

      I think he did a great job here, and in the various media appearances he made throughout last week. In every case he was direct and clear. He brought the gospel in at numerous points, and was friendly and good-humored when he did so. Jeffress was also careful to clarify that in his use of the word “cult” he did not mean to compare Romney to the Branch Davidians or Jim Jones, but that he only meant to say that Mormonism is not Christianity. I think that last point has been lost on most people, but it’s not because he hasn’t been saying it over and over again.

      Do I think it’s advisable for pastors to endorse political candidates for president? No, I don’t. That being said, I think the pig-piling on Jeffress last week was excessive. Bennett, Scarborough, Ingraham and others who called him a bigot were out of line in my view. Romney’s call for Perry to condemn him was pure politics. The politicos on the right seem very uninterested in substantive debate, but instead have been narrowly interested in spinning this whole controversy to their own advantage. Romney smelled blood in the water, and that is why he said what he did at the Christie endorsement. I thought it was a low blow.

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