The CNN interview with a fundamentalist pastor in late October brought a pause to my channel surfing. His church is the kind that sponsors those hideous Hell Houses around Halloween and other creative ways to express the love and joy of following Jesus.

The television host confessed to being a conservative Christian himself, but questioned the minister’s aggressive, insensitive approach. With expected smugness, the pastor brushed aside the criticism and proudly embraced any offense he and his congregation might bring with their efforts to counter the sinful culture in which they must live.

Of course, the pompous preacher limited his denouncement of “sin” to abortion, gay marriage and drug use. Guess I turned the channel before he got around to greed, arrogance, selfishness, abuse of power, mistreatment of the poor, concern for the suffering — you know, the things the Bible primarily addresses.

Ironically, the next channel on which I landed showed singer Elton John selling his latest recording. The openly gay entertainer with a history of drug addiction was talking about why he keeps churning out music after decades of success.

His motivation, he said, was fueled by his desire to continue providing funds for medical research. He talked about the tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease and recent advances that have been made in battling cancer and AIDS.

A week or so later the singer publicly stated that organized religion fuels hatred. I wish we had a stronger defense with which to respond to his charges.

The irony of the two interviews, of course, is that Elton sounded a lot more like Jesus than the guy claiming to represent him. The colorful singer’s message of compassion was more compelling than the preacher’s incessant condemnation.

Making high-horse proclamations that are void of compassion could not be any less like Jesus’ approach to ministry. Belittling groups of people we don’t know and condemning the actions of others while ignoring our own failures will not advance the Christian faith.

Michael Gerson, former speechwriter and policy advisor to President Bush, makes a good point about the public perception of Christians in the Nov. 13, 2006 issue of Newsweek.

“When it speaks, a new evangelicalism should be distinctive for its tone as well,” writes Gerson. “The goal is not only to stand for Christianity’s moral teachings but to emulate the manner of its Founder, who showed that kindness is not weakness, and had more tenderness for moral outcasts than for moral hypocrites.”

For generations gracious Sunday school teachers have instilled in young churchgoers the basic elements of faith — that God is love and we are to act lovingly toward others.

But the message can get clouded when teachers — usually women — help children memorize verses like “Be ye kind one to another” and then they watch other grown-up church leaders — usually men during church conferences or outside the church doors — speak to or of others in very unkind ways.

Even young minds can conclude from such experiences that the biblical lessons learned in Sunday school must not apply to the way one is to live in the real world, especially as an adult.

We argue over doctrine, worship styles, ordination, mission strategies, and the most trivial of church matters at the sacrifice of central Christian concepts such as “God is love” and “Be ye kind one to another.

Either these early lessons form the essential, basic biblical message — that applies throughout our lives and in every situation — or we have been leading children astray for generations. My guess is that our going astray tends to take place after we vacate the children’s department.

Perhaps we need to revisit our earlier days of Christian nurture and settle again into those short, hard chairs where the basics were emphasized repeatedly. Or maybe we could just keep the basic messages bubbling up more often.

Every Sunday school lesson, regardless of the age group, and every pastor’s sermon might reinforce somehow the grand ideas of “God is love” and “Be ye kind one to another.” Then, at the conclusion, the pastor or teacher might add: “Now once we get this down, we’ll move on to something else.”