Sorry, my comment was a joke, I didn't intend for you to take it literally.

Unfortunately I didn't see any "logic and reasoning" in your first post. I saw you make a caricature of the Christian faith, and then mock the caricature. That's not an argument its an appeal to sentiment and a straw man argument which are both logical fallacies. If you are going to tout a "logical" position vs what you consider irrational faith…then you should consider arguing logically.

Joey

Since when does using logic and reasoning equal drug use? Christians always assume the non-believers with "that book learnin'" are dregs of society. To answer your question…no. I'd get kicked out of the USAF if I did drugs. Actually, I may have been on a chemical release. As I read this blog, my brain began a steady release of dopamine after realizing how smart I really am compared to all of you. So…thanks!

God certainly graced MJ with talent like few others.

Logan…um…are you sure you aren't experiencing some sort a chemical release of some sort right now?

Joey

He didn't believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Actually…I'm the idiot…that makes PERFECT SENSE! Burn your stupid holly bibble and check out a book full of actual science and fact from your local library. There is no God. When you begin to die there is a chemical release that can cause hallucinations…including feelings of bright lights and tunnels! You can read more about FACT in SCIENCE BOOKS! Amazing, isn't it!?

"He was not preaching at coffins"

Neither was JT placing a note on Jackson's grave. The people reading his post were very much alive, and he brought the truth of Christ to bear on this situation.

I seriously cannot imagine how a fellow christian could object to talking about Jesus in a moment like this.

Even Paul commended false apostles who preached Christ, knowing full well it was done with false motives. How then can we object to a sincere believer bringing Christ's truth to bear on such a sad situation.

Topher, you should rejoice that Jesus' name was magnified today in JT's post. Dude, your Savior was being talked about….be happy, not angry!

Let's just agree that all that die unregenerate are set to face Christ's judgement. Thus, let's proclaim the gospel ever more vigorously to those around us so that Jesus will be glorified by their redemption rather than their damnation.

What I am saying is this: go talk to them before they die. Jesus was talking about a city full of living people, He was not preaching at coffins.

I posted a link to your blog entry on mine. Hope you don't mind.

A Musician by Grace

What you guys are really saying is that it is OK to saying anything about Jackson, as long as Jesus Christ is not brought into the discussion.

Seriously, JT's post was seasoned with love, and he bent over backwards to show grace and compassion.

You wish to rejoice in the man's life. Fair enough. But many of us deeply grieve what was perhaps the death of an unredeemed man.

Your failure (or at least unwillingess) to feel and share this same grief doesn't highlight our insensitivity, but rather your own.

Look at the words of Jesus. Far from "being silent" over the spiritual darkness of Jerusalem, he openly and publically lamented. We should learn from his example. Demonstrating the love of Jesus also means a willingness to speak like Jesus—openly, honestly, and with compassionate truthfulness.

After a recent funeral sermon I got a similar reaction from several Christians in attendance. The woman had been a self-professed atheist, as was most of the family. The family was marked by addiction, jail, and abuse. My sermon was direct—a life without Christ ends in condemnation.

The non-believers, especially the family, didn't object to the message. In fact, they expected a Christian pastor to give a Christian message. They were truly thankful, and many doors of conversation were opened.

The only ones who objected were the "Christians" who chided me about insensitivity. They said the funeral was a time for expression of grief and for me to provide comfort, instead of scaring people with the fear of hell (actually, I never even used the word "hell", though the concept was there).

I guess I'm just old school in my belief that being a Christ-follower is the only comfort there is—and that the most loving act is to declare His truth…..whether directly, or via a blog.

It is no wonder people hate the American church (and we call it being persecuted). We just will not shut up when the moment calls for silence, regardless of whose death we are discussing.

There is something to be said for timing and taste. I thought this post was both poor in taste and timing.

Of course we evangelicals have everything figured out so we know exactly what has happened to the man…

I thought this post was balanced, fair, and written in the right spirit. By no means was it an attack on Jackson – just a raw look at why having an eternal perspective is so crucial.

The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this on the news last night was pity. An irony of the situation is that as a member of the Jehovah Witnesses cult, Jackson didn't even believe in the existence of hell. Many people don't. Besides Jackson and Fawcett, about 200,000 other people died yesterday (and will pass today). How many have "peace" that has no biblical basis? How many have no idea what awaits them on the other side of the grave, and have rejected the Christ of the Bible?

That's where the real tragedy is. Jackson was just a very small part of it. If anyone had an opportunity to investigate the claims of the true Gospel, (as opposed to the twisting of Scripture in the New World Translation), it was him. His brokenness was indeed painful to see; one doesn't even want to contemplate his eternal state.

I do mourn his loss and shudder to think that he is meeting Jesus with an unregenerate soul. The Enemy used the JWs to distort his family's view of Jesus (from what I understand) and now he'll know the truth. That is the most painful part for me. I pray that the Lord would give his family new hearts to love the real Jesus. I hope you guys might pray the same.

The watch bloggers are out this morning!

I thought your post was honest, thoughtful, and sheds some great Gospel perspective on the topic.

Well done!

I'm praying for God to use Michael's death to glorify Himself, and possibly save some from the same tragedies that Michael suffered.

Justin does us a service by actually saying what nobody in the media says — the reality of how he stood in light of God's Word (to whatever extent we can know such a thing). How important it is that Michael Jackson's public, visible life be assessed biblically/theologically, not just with saccharine Hallmark words.

I was really shocked to hear of his death. What a travesty. I also concur with everything JT has said. I couldn't have said it better myself. I would just add one more thing and that is the command that Jesus gave us and that is pray for more laborers for the harvest. When we pray for more laborers, through that, the Lord uses us to evangelize. Most of us won't evangelize Hollywood, but we'll evangelize our neighbors and co-workers.

I'm sorry that anyone dies without knowing the Lord.

The last line really hit me:

"I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out."

Someone like Michael Jackson is an easy target. It's easy to point at him, a man who was publicly put on trial for the things he'd allegedly done, and say, "Wow well thank God I'm not like that!", or "Look how digusting that man is!" It's easy to make a target out of this man while our vile sins remain hidden from the eyes of this world. It's easy to call him a "creep" when our sins go undetected by human eyes, and yet he wore his deeds on his deteriorating face.

We need Christ's mercy as much as any "sick pervert", for we are no different than he. While Michael's sins were exploited and brought forth on live television, so many of ours remain hidden under the floorboards, as we grieve the Holy Spirit all the more.

I think WJM brought up a good point: what does it mean to do something GOOD? In Mark 10:18, Jesus says, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Therefore I'd say anything that brings glory to God has had a good influence. And since God is the only good, ONLY something that lifts up God's name is good. With that in mind, did MJ influence our culture in any good ways?

Certainly God's grace abounds on this earth, constantly restraining us from some of the evil we desire to do, so none of us are as bad as we would be without that, but can we really say that MJ contributed anything of value to eternity (or that any of us on our own contributed something of value to eternity)? No– the only reason WE can lift up His name is because He has enabled us to by His grace! So why lift up MJ's name? I think it's great that JT finds an opportunity in MJ's death to proclaim Christ and to exhort us Christians to exhibit a love for the lost that glorifies Christ – and if God works through MJ's death to bring someone to faith in Jesus or to encourage a Christian that the time to glorify Christ on this earth is short (and therefore do something about it), then we have something to rejoice about! In response to another point, that this isn't the right time to talk about this sort of stuff: since the time is short, there's no good reason to wait to bring up such an important issue! We must act to redeem the time and glorify Christ TODAY however He enables us!