Bill Maher, late night comedian and recently minted social commentator was interviewed by Larry King on CNN last week. Maher's sarcasm and cynical humor is a hit with his following. He is irreverent and edgy in driving home the barbed ends of his humor. If you are on his ideological page he can be very funny.

The interview took place a few days after mega-church pastor Rick Warren hosted the presidential candidates for a discussion. Maher has a jaundiced view of what he calls "religion". His take: "It's not mainly about doing the right thing or being ethical. It's mainly about salvation. It's mainly about getting your butt saved when you die...They believe in this comic-book figure called the devil who's going to poke your ass in hell if you're bad."

It is healthy for the church to ponder her critics. Are we disinterested in the common good of society? That position is certainly off mission for Jesus. Luke said of him, "You know about Jesus of Nazareth,...how he went about doing good..." Acts 10:38. His ministry was certainly much more, but at root it was not any less. If a church is not concerned for the common good of humanity, they are not following Jesus. John Wesley, a follower of Christ from the 18th century, said, "Do all the good you can in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." Maher is for Wesley's vision.

Jesus winsomely combined doing good with offering hope. He knew that what ails us at root is our sinful selfish heart. We need a change of heart. We need to be saved. Heaven is our hope. Hell is reserved for those estranged from God who could never stand being around Him. Dallas Willard said, "Heaven is for everybody who can stand it."

Hell is an obnoxious thought until you ponder the justice for which we all yearn. Everybody wants the murderer to face the charge, the rapist and the pedophile to face "the judge". The sexual trafficker will face "the judge of all the earth" (Genesis 18:25). Liars complicate our lives. Oddly, I am attracted to God by hell. Hell is God's response to evil. I want a God who gets ticked with evil. What I was less free to acknowledge for a while was the destructive seeds of evil present in my heart. I myself was estranged from God. How could that sixties slogan have become one of our culture's most deeply held convictions, "Hell no, we won't go!"? We still need a Savior from our culpable guilt before a holy God. Yes, Bill, we need to be saved. And the good news is still "there is Savior who has been born who is Christ the Lord!" (Luke 2:10). And the news gets better at Good Friday and Easter.

What critics with Maher are less willing to acknowledge is that these saved folk are the same people who are engaged in more work for the common good in America and around the world. Ask FEMA who provided the most volunteer labor in the aftermath of Katrina. Whole sections of the worst of New Orleans were given over to Franklin Graham's Samaritan's purse. Why? No one else could muster those volunteer armies. Those armies of the saved got their butts to New Orleans and found high joy in serving for the common good, and they would argue, for the glory of their Savior.

Sure, Maher is right. There are churches who are simply after saving their "ass from hell". But they are not following God's entire book. People do all sorts of things in Jesus' name that are not in the book. There is some pending justice for that as well.

Southgate is pleased to be a part of a band of volunteers from churches all over Springfield who find joy in serving others in Jesus' name and work for the common good of all of us. Bill, you protest too much! We do not need less engagement, our world needs more of these volunteers whose involvement stems from their gratitude for God's work in their life to save them from the eternal consequences of their sin. According to the book, when your butts are saved, you just can't help but pour your life into making life better for all in the name of Jesus Christ. And along the way, you invite them into life, forgiveness and peace through knowing Jesus Christ as Savior...in deed and in word!