It’s a common belief that the media loves to pick on evangelical Christians, and who can deny that Christians feel the media is out to get them. The mutual dislike of these groups is pretty much accepted. But what about when that evangelical Christian, or that media person, is your brother?

Hi, I’m Jason. I’m not a Christian. Oh, I once was, but like most kids in the 1980s, I hit high school and went from faith to Faith No More.

My half-brother? Well, that’s a different story.

His name is Joseph. Can you get more Christian than that? Joey, as we like to call him, grew up with our Dad in the heart of the Bible Belt, while I grew up with my mom among the sun-worshippers of California.

Our dad really, really liked Jesus. Whenever my sister and I met up with Joey and our dad, no matter where we were, we’d go to church. Sunday school. The Oral Roberts Museum. Whatever we could find. I even remember our dad speaking in tongues. We grew up in our mom’s religion-free home, and I just didn’t get it.

When we were kids (less than two years apart), I always thought of my half-brother Joey as the wild one, our sister as the bookworm, and me as somewhere in between. But since our dad has passed away, the wildness has been replaced by a strong Christian faith. And it’s been good for him—he has a wonderful wife and family—but I still don’t really get the Jesus part, or the conservative politics that seem to go with it.

This week I’m heading to Florida to visit my Christian brother and his kin, and see if we can, somehow, “get” each other. Before I go, I think I need to study up–I’m about 20 years behind in my Bible reading. My first stop is a bookstore here in downtown Berkeley. It may be the heart of hippiedom, but they should still carry the Bible, right?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 3:50 pm and is filed under My Brother The Christian posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.