Posted by Ir (Helen) on: 04.04.2007 /
Meagan Tevebaugh e-mailed me about her experience at the Live Today taping. The taped show will be aired on April 30.
It’s been about a year since I stumbled across an Atheist from Chicago auctioning off his time and open mind on eBay to any Christian gutsy enough to bid and send him on a pilgrimage to God. I was so intrigued by the auction and followed it daily… hourly…I couldn’t wait to see what happened. I continued following the story religiously on Off The Map, blogged daily, and had my eyes opened to different perspectives more than a time or two.
Living in Texas, and knowing that Off The Map was based in Seattle and Hemant in Chicago, I had resolved that I would never meet these two personalities. Then I received a newsletter from Hemant’s website. The e-mail announced that he would be in Dallas, Texas for an interview with a Christian Talk Show, Life Today, and Jim Henderson. I live in Fort Worth (only about 30 miles from Dallas). I was going to be in the same room with them both… maybe I would even get to raise my hand and have the host come to me so I could ask a question. I imagined this talk show would be like Oprah or Live with Regis and Kelly. Well, it was a much smaller venue and fewer people than I had thought. We were asked to clap enthusiastically to imply a larger audience than the thirty or forty of us. The smaller and more casual setting gave us a chance to meet and mingle after the taping of the show though.
The interview itself was mostly questions I’ve heard asked before to Jim and Hemant.; questions such as, “Why did you (Hemant) decided to put yourself on eBay?”, and “Jim, what was your intention in buying Hemant?”. The answers were the same also. Hemant told that he had grown up Jain and rejected religion as a teenager and realized that he had never given Christianity a try. Jim admitted that he was not trying to convert Hemant but instead learn more about how he could relate to Atheist. It was so neat to see their relationship in person. They were the epitome of mellow. They had dialogue and an understanding of each other. It was, in no way, a “come to Jesus meeting”.
Another part of the evening that excited me was that there were two Atheist groups came to check out the story. I think Hemant may have known some of the people from one of the groups. I was really glad that they were there. Once again two opposing sides of spirituality were able to dialogue and show kindness.