The name Mancow has long been associated with the wild and bizarre, befitting the reputation of the hugely successful Shock Jock and Television personality. But anyone who has actually listened to Mancow’s Morning Madhouse knows that the views the host expresses are mostly biblical. They may be expressed in wild and bizarre ways, but they pretty much hold up to biblical scrutiny. Still, to many it comes as a surprise that the producer of the show, Nathan Murray, is a totally committed Christian. ”My dad was a pastor,” Murray said, “but I didn’t really come to faith until I was about 19 or 20 years old. Being raised in church it becomes a part of you and I think I always was a believer, but Jesus said confess with your lips and while I would say I believed in Jesus, I didn’t live it at all.   When I was about 20, I got a personal revelation and then accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. Before that I had been taught great work ethics by my father and my mother – to be on time, work hard, many things which I believe are Christ values. King Solomon talks about those thing in Proverbs and I was applying them not knowing they were Biblical values, but having the fruit of the Spirit — patience, love, joy, gentleness, meekness – all those things. Jesus said be a man of your word – let your yes be yes and your no be no. All those things prepared me for this industry, especially patience. Without those qualities, you are not going to go very far in this business.”

Murray believes that true witnessing is done by the way one lives their life: “I want people to see that I’m a hard worker, that I’m fair, that I keep my word and I’m a Christian. Unfortunately there are so many people who say they are Christians who have the worst work values – lazy, not on time, call off for everything – ‘oh, I got an ache in my neck, I can’t make it to work.’ You know faithfulness can be a huge witness. Before I was in the entertainment industry I was in ministry for ten years. I traveled the world with a mega-pastor of a mega church. And before that I was a banker. As a banker, I was managing three or four different banks and I had employees that were Christians, church goers…and they were the worse examples of employees. They were late all the time, I couldn’t trust them, and they would call off work all the time and they were just not good performers. Then I would I hear them talking about God and trying to witness to other people. They would be very preachy to them, hyper-spiritual and totally turn the person off. The people whom they were talking to would be like ‘Wait a minute, who are you to tell me this. I’m not going to take anything you say seriously just because of the way you work.’”

There’s a word I use to describe people who are more about church than they are about real Christian values – Churchianity and Churchianity is not Christianity. Nathan Murray agreed: “Jesus said, if your salt loses its flavor, men will trample it under their feet, which means if you’re not a good witness or a good example, people won’t take anything you say seriously. As a believer, I’ve always understood that the responsibility is on me to be the example. I try not to be a hypocrite. I think I’m guilty of that sometimes, but at the same time, being a hypocrite means that you are acting like you’re something that you’re not. One thing I learned as a believer in the entertainment industry is you have to let people know, ‘Hey, I’m not perfect. You’re going to see me mess up; you’re going to see me do something that is not going to make you happy.’ The only difference is that as a Christian I am forgiven, but I have the same struggles as anyone else. They may not always be to the same extreme, but they are there. It’s not that we’re perfect it that we are trying to be perfected. The bible says we go from faith to faith. My goal today is that I will be closer to God and a better Christian then I was yesterday but you might make ten leaps and then fall on one thing and you’re like twenty steps back. But, thank God, Proverbs says, ‘a just man shall fall seven times but he gets back up again.’”

As Christians we have to be careful not to judge others too harshly. Not only do we usually not know what they are going through, but we also don’t know how God may be shaping them at this point in their life. “God may deal with us collectively as a church but He also deals with us individually,” Murray pointed out, “so this person maybe be struggling with a different issue than we are. We may have overcome that issue, but there are other issues that we are still struggling with so how can we judge them? They may have already overcome some issue that we haven’t even begun to address. And a lot depends on where you started, how you were raised and what you learned when you were young. We know there is no seniority in the Kingdom of God because Jesus gave the parable of the guy who came in first and the guy who came in last and they both received the same reward.”

The pressures of this life wear and tear on the best of us and I asked Murray who he looked to as examples to get him through the rough times. “Of course Christ is the ultimate example. The way Christ led, the way he communicated, the way he chose his leaders, and the way he went alone to pray. Those things are incredible, not just as the son of God but the way he lived His life as a man. There are practical principles you can learn from the life of Jesus besides the divine part of him. He is fully God and fully man at the same time.”

Besides being a television and radio producer, Murray is an accomplished guitarist and a national champion martial artist and there were examples and influences he looked to in those areas as well. “There are musicians I really look to whose career I’ve followed and looked at their work ethics and their daily principles. For example, my favorite guitarist is Eddie Van Halen. He learned guitar all by himself and that was an influence to me and I’m self taught. I’ve been doing martial arts for 25 years. I’m a two time National Karate Champion – 1998 and 1999 – I was the black belt age under 34 lightweight champion. That’s the AKA, American Karate Association, full contact. Bruce Lee was an influence to me there. His ethic and his discipline helped me through my whole life. He helped me be a champion as far as ethics; discipline, dedication, passion, and vision go…all those things.”

As producer of a national talk show, one of Murray’s tasks is lining up interesting guests so it should come as no surprise that he is a keen student of people, especially individuals who stand out from the crowd. “I can get really caught up with someone and really focus on them for a few days. Like Howard Hughes. He fascinates me. The guy was an eccentric and had some really crazy qualities but if you take those out and study him – yeah, the guy had OCD and lust for women problems, but beyond that, look at his work ethic, his engineering, his genius. And I’ll study that for a few days really intently. Maybe I’ll spend a week really researching the guy. Then I’ll move on to someone else. Jim Morrison would be another example. Whoever it is, I’ll try to look at their genius and take away the bad things about them so I can learn from the good. Those things inspire me.”

Today, Nathan Murray is sure that he is where God has called him to be, but it took a lot of seeking and growing in the Lord for him to get there. “I think that it’s Romans 10:3 that says that we can have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge and when I first accepted Christ I was really, really zealous and I didn’t have a balance. I was either extremely one way or the other where Jesus said we have to be salt. Be just enough. Be the right balance. And I was either too bitter or not enough. So there were some decisions that I could’ve made that I didn’t because I was so overzealous or quote, unquote, religious. I thought no, I can’t do that because I thought Jesus wouldn’t like it or I got too much. But then I look back and go, ‘Wow, look what the Lord has done.’ I probably could’ve done those things but then, on the other hand, maybe God didn’t want me to do them at that time because it could’ve taken me away from the path that put me where I am now. When I was a martial arts champion I was scouted to be a stuntman and do movies in Hollywood. I said no because of my faith. I didn’t want to get trapped in that world; I didn’t want to go that route. But now I realize that God was just telling me that I wasn’t ready yet, mature wise, for that life. I really feel that God had to mature me in my walk with Him because there was a point where I couldn’t go to a bar or a nightclub or any of those places because I would go right down the path of nonsense and debauchery. I wasn’t strong enough then. I didn’t have the pillars of my faith in place enough to resist that. Over the years God has matured me to where I can be in that environment, like Jesus could be in that environment and influence the environment as opposed to the environment influencing him. As Christians there are boundaries and there is a line that we cannot go beyond as believers because once we go beyond that line we know two things are going to happen. One, we’re going to fall and two; our witness is going to be ruined. So everything we said and everything did to influence people towards choosing Christ is then gone in that one instance. There was a time when I wasn’t strong enough to deal with that, but that was God’s plan for my life so he matured me in my walk until I could be what He intended me to be.”

Many Christian feel that the compromised values of certain industries preclude Christians from being part of them, but just as God told Elijah that he had His people hidden away even in the darkest places, some of us are meant to walk the delicate balance of trying to be a light in a dark place. “I know I am called to be in the entertainment industry and it definitely because of my faith that I’m here. I had the naysayers, the voices saying ‘no, this is not the will of God for you’, but it was all based on works, all based on the people and the environment. But I was like, ‘Well, I really feel a peace about it and God gave me the confirmations – not two, not three but several so that I know that this is what God wants me to do. If I didn’t have faith, if I didn’t have those values, I probably wouldn’t be here right now. It’s so strange that so many Christians think we should avoid anything dark – I mean how dark is the Bible? There’s so much sex and violence in the bible. I mean, read the book of Judges. You read about a woman that was raped and dismembered and then her body was put in packages and sent out to other nations to warn them. There’s so much violence and darkness in the Bible. There’s gratuitous violence but there is also violence with a purpose. Like your (James Riordan’s) book on Rwanda or “Shindler’s List” – those are works where violence has a purpose. Look how violent “The Passion of the Christ” was. That’s violence with a purpose. We need to see how violent that was to understand the sacrifice that Christ made for us.”

As a believer, Murray is also very concerned about the state of America. “There’s a saying, ‘Hope for the best, but expect the worst.’ I’m very proud of this country and what we’ve established. I do believe that God ordained this nation. Ninety percent of the gospel that is preached in this world is from America. We’re the biggest supporter of the gospel and provide the biggest mandate of the gospel. We support the biggest missions of the gospel. So, God had a plan for this nation nut I’m afraid that right now American is falling into unbelief. As Romans say, ‘Where sin abounds, grace abounds that much more,’ so we need more grace in these days, but we as Christians should see what is happening. I really believe that Jesus is coming soon. I’m not going to be one of these name daters. It could happen fifty years from now, who knows, but I do feel that it’s going to happen in my lifetime. When I think about how America was just fifteen years ago compared to now, it’s just two different countries. The things that are happening right now under this administration – so many presidents would’ve been impeached by now. It just boggles my mind that we just traded a Hamas or Taliban friendly deserter in Afghanistan for five known terrorists. And then we have a soldier in Mexico who is in prison and we won’t do anything to get him free. It’s just unbelievable. I mean imagine if Bush did this or Clinton or Bush senior or Reagan, oh my gosh, it would’ve been ‘impeach, impeach, impeach’. I’ve been around the world and I’ve been to many socialist countries and the people I know there tell me that America is headed for socialism, And I would say, ‘What? How do you know that?” And they tell that they grew up in a socialist country and that everything that is happening here happened there. So, I hope for the best. I pray for this nation. I love America. I still believe we’re the greatest nation in the world. But, growing up under Reagan where everyone was proud to be an American, other nations feared us – now it seems like the opposite. Now we’re ridiculed. We’re looked at as much weaker and we’re not as feared. And that’s happened in just a span of six to eight years. We used to be solidly committed and now we’re wishy washy.”

And. In many ways the Christian Church has also been compromised. “The church of Jesus Christ acts like a bunch of lambs, not lions. We’re not standing up as we should. Back when President Obama was running for his first term, we had a Pastor out in California who asked the President about abortion and the president avoided the answer. He said, ‘Oh that’s above my pay grade.’ No, it’s not, you’re the frigging president. And that pastor let it slide. He should’ve said, ‘Wait a minute, you say you’re a Christian so as a Christian you should be able to answer this. It has nothing to do with your pay grade. And that’s a huge mega church pastor who sells millions of books. I see that more and more with pastors just not standing up and a lot of the church has gone along with it. Look at how many churches now are saying its okay to be homosexual. I mean, what’s next? It’s okay to have two or three wives, molest children…where is the line. And I don’t want to label homosexuals because when we stand in front of God, it’s not going to be were you gay or not, it’s going to did you believe in my Son or not. That is not going to be the issue. A homosexual is no different than a fornicator or an alcoholic or whatever. Sin is sin. But it’s funny how the minority grew. I think 4% of the population claims to be gay, but somehow they’re the majority voice. Ninety percent of this country believes in God, but we act like we’re the minority voice.”

On the other hand those Christians who do speak out often fail to do it with love. “I mean we have people like those from the Westborough Baptist Church.” Murray continues. They are stranding up and condemning sin, but they are not doing it with love. They’re like the worst example of a Christian. They’re not Christ centered or loving people. We do have people like Joel Osteen who I think tries his hardest to be what Christ intended him to be, but he gets criticized by lots of Christians for not being deep enough or saying the sinner’s prayer the way some think it should be said. Give me a break. When I go to a Joel Osteen crusade I see actors, musicians, all these people that come there and start on their journey to find Christ. It like someone once asked Billy Graham how many people it took for someone to accept Christ and he said ‘Thirty – the first person thinks they did everything wrong and the 30^th person thinks they did everything right. It takes a journey, a seed planting. They’ll come across a James Riordan or a Nathan Murray and they’ll hear that we’re Christians and maybe we said something that will make them think. But then a month later they will run into something – watch TV and see a Joel Osteen and receive another seed and then ultimately they’ll come to a point in their life, God will break them or they will suddenly get it and they’re going to say ‘I need God’ and then they accept Christ, but it took all those seeds to get them to that point.”

Murray is a family man and, like most Christians, the family is very precious to him. “I’ve been married almost eleven years. I have three kids. I have three boys, a nine-year old named Joshua, an eight year old named Dylan and a two year old named Mason. Family is very important to me. The Bible says, if you’re not able to lead your own family or your own house, you’re not fit to lead in the house of God so God looks at family as very, very important. When you read the Book of Job, he starts with family and he ends with family. In the beginning He talks about Job’s family and how great it was and, at the end, He talks about Job’s family and how it was even greater in the end. As a parent I want to make sure that I train up my children as the Bible says in the way that they should go. I’ve taken a lot from my parents. They taught me the things of God but I think their view was more traditional in the sense they kind of brow-beat me into it or forced me into it. Paul says the law brings forth sin, if you put the law on somebody, it causes him to rebel. So with my kids I show them a lot of love, love love. My kids fear me reverentially, but at the same time they know they can cut up with me. I think one of the things wrong with families today is the idea that your kids are your best buddies. No, no, no. My kids are not my buddies. They look at me as a father, as an example, as a leader, but they can also tell me anything, talk to me about anything. They feel free to always approach me. Thank God I married a strong Christian woman with Christian parents. Family is very important to me and my faith is everything to me. It is my life. Without faith I would be have the family I have, the career I have or anything else.”

When you get to know Nathan Murray on just about any level it becomes easy to see the love and commitment that are at his core. He is a committed Christian, a man of values.