I normally watch David Letterman at 10:30 and catch “The Colbert Report” during its prime-time repeat the following day, but tonight I may need to watch Stephen instead.
His guest will be Tony Campolo. Campolo is, to me, one of the most fascinating (and certainly one of the most controversial) figures in modern American Christianity. Theologically orthodox yet liberal in some of his politics, he is a thorn in the side of some evangelicals, and yet many of them respect him and even hold him in high regard.
I have referred on many occasions to a famous incident in which Campolo was speaking to a large Christian group and delivered a statistic about hunger. He then told the audience that most of them didn’t give a [fecal movement] about it. Then, after the uncomfortable pause, he pointed out that most of them were more bothered by the word [fecal movement] than about the fact that millions of people were going hungry.
It should be fascinating to see him with Colbert, who conducts his interviews more or less in character, portraying an arrogant, O’Reilly-esque pundit. I have heard that the real Colbert is actually a devout Catholic.
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