Let's face it, Christians and especially evangelical Christians have a huge PR problem.

Though at one time society considered us the good guys, we become the bad guys.

So how do we live faithfully for Jesus in a culture that hates us?

Welcome to the Roy's report, a podcast dedicated to

reporting the truth and restoring the church. I'm Julie Roy's. And today I'm tackling this difficult

issue with pastor, author, and blogger Stephen McAlpine. Stephen's just written this fantastic book.

It's called Being the Bad Guys, How to Live for Jesus in a World that says you shouldn't.

And there's no doubt our society doesn't like Christianity and it doesn't like Christians.

In fact, in a 2019 Pew Research study, fewer than one in three non-evangelicals view evangelicals

favorably. And some of this is our own doing, right? There's no doubt

some of our political engagement has not helped. And I think the rise of so-called Christian

nationalism has been so incredibly hurtful to the cause of Christ. But then we also have all

the church scandals. And it's no wonder that our culture doesn't have a high opinion of us.

They think we're all shysters, and though I still believe that the majority of Christians are

loving, honest people. We have some extremely serious issues that we need to address as the

body of Christ. On top of all this, we have a message that's always been countercultural,

yet now we're living in a post-Christian world.

And what we believe is an offense to almost everyone around us. So how do we live as Christians

when everyone thinks we're the bad guys? Well, Stephen has a radical idea. He says we should just

own that we're the bad guys and then be the best bad guys that we

possibly can. And I'm really looking forward to my conversation with Stephen, but first, I want to

just take a minute to thank my sponsors Judson University and Marquart of Barrington. I so appreciate

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