It must have been the presence of Benny Hinn’s “publicist” that caused the interviewer to pretend to ask Hinn probing questions like this one on ABC News last night:

“Are you taking advantage of people?”

Huh?! Let me rephrase that question for you—and would someone please distract the “publicist” with a platter of bear claws long enough for me to get it out?

“Mr. Hinn, after 30-plus years of ministry you have not offered proof of one verifiable miracle in your crusades. You receive a salary in excess of $500,000 per year from a secretive ministry run by family members and friends. You travel in a private jet and stay in hotel rooms worth upwards of $5,000 per night. You appear regularly on TBN and promise viewers that they will receive wealth, spiritual protection and salvation for their family members if they give you and TBN their money. Many of your donors are the poor and elderly, with limited financial resources. Trained hypnotists and illusionists who attend your crusades claim that they use the very same techniques to manipulate suggestible people in their audiences. …

… Is there any possibility you are not taking advantage of people?”

I’ve often heard the phrase worked into sermons and books as a defense of free will: “God is a gentleman. He won’t make you do something you don’t want to do.” But it has never rung true to me—beside the fact that it portrays God as a polite (and even milquetoast) suitor, not the passionate Bridegroom, dangerous Warrior and omnipotent King we find in Scripture.

I don’t want a gentleman God, one who knocks once and leaves when no one answers, who encounters a funeral procession and keeps on walking lest He disturb the family, who meets a rich man and meekly suggests he give away a mere 10 percent of his worldly goods. Do you see where I’m going with this?

If God is who He says He is, He possesses the right to supersede my will and impose His own on my life, and doing so is not an act of intrusion, but of infinite grace. This is why Scripture describes conversion in terms of an infant being born, a slave being freed, a dead person being raised—all examples in which no free will is involved.

How do these dynamics interact with human choice? I’m still figuring that out, but I wonder if the concept of free will expressed in Christian circles is merely a Western invention that avoids the sometimes uncomfortable aspects of God’s sovereignty and puts humans in the driver’s seat where they don’t belong.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the importance of the church “engaging” culture. So, I offer here a brief, but helpful, primer on three ways you can engage culture this week:

Mimic It. This can be very lucrative, since Christians would prefer their hard-earned dollars go to a fellow Christian, not funding someone’s porn or drinking habit. The goal is to stay hip, but also make a spiritual statement. T-shirts and mugs can really make someone think about the emptiness of their life without God. How can it be wrong, when the product we’re advertising is life changing?

“Find God” in It. You may be surprised to discover that God can be found in many books, movies, TV shows and songs created by people who hate Him. He’s tricky that way. To help you find Him, you will need a book or small-group study written by someone who is knowledgeable in these various cultural artifacts. It takes an expert, because sometimes He’s wearing a vampire cape, or short and green He is and reverses His grammar He does.

Hate. When all else fails, it is important to inform our fallen culture that it is in fact fallen. For instance, if—by holding signs at their funerals and “weddings”—we make sure homosexuals and other sinners know where they are going, it’s possible that they will stop doing those dirty things that God hates and He will like them as much as He likes us.