I am embarrassed to tell you that when I started giving sermons - when I was

way too young to do so - I thought the thing to do was to try to scare the hell out

of people. Or, to scare them out of hell.

This is what I was taught: the most important thing in life is to have the right set

of beliefs and to be able to defend them - to the death if necessary - so that at

the time of death one is assured of eternal salvation.

As you have heard me say before, I grew up in an evangelical church. One of

the most important things about church was "winning souls for Jesus." We had

revivals twice a year.