Religious labels cause misinterpretation

I read your article in the Spectrum "Hung Up On Christ" (Jan. 27, by Michael Flatt) and realized I needed to respond in order to help clear up some wrong information.

1. "The site...has been around for a couple of years". Thensomethinghappened.com was actually launched in November of 2005.

2. "If you follow the links on the page far enough, you'll eventually find that the man behind the curtain is Buffalo Campus Crusade for Christ."

Thensomethinghappened.com belongs to "Vintage," the college/young adult group from The Chapel at CrossPoint. This is clearly stated in the closing video segment and links to our site, vintagetruth.com, are provided. The only connection with Buffalo Campus Crusade is that by agreement they have allowed us to link to some of their resources online, and we list their campus meeting information along with the meeting information of other campus groups.

As far as your take that this is "manipulation" and somehow we are trying to deceive people and "lure" them into knowing Christ ("Scripture doesn't portray a Christ willing to lure people into discussion with them so he could convert them"), I would disagree with your assessment and here's why: we do not give the site some "religious" label upfront for the same reason you do not label you articles upfront ("Conservative," "Liberal," etc.). Because of people's background, experiences, and a host of other variables, "labels" mean different things to different people and can often completely misrepresent the material to which they are attached.

The video stories on thensomethinghappened.com don't try to hide the fact that it was God who was responsible for giving them hope. On the contrary, they celebrate this and encourage anyone who might be interested to give Jesus an honest look. What anyone chooses to do with that information is completely up to them - that is the wonderful gift of free will.