Bringing people of all backgrounds together
to talk about God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ
with mutual respect and understanding.

Hello, my friend. My name is Duane Watson and I am the host of the show Talk Like Friends. I live in Dayton, Ohio with my wonderful, hard-working wife and delightful 2-year-old daughter. My wife is half Japanese and my adopted daughter is half African-American and I'm as white as they come. So, we are a very diverse, happy little family.

For the record, I am not a pastor. I am not a theologian. I am not an apologist. I'm not even a Bible scholar, although I've learned and memorized quite a bit of Scripture over the years. No, what I am is a lifelong Christian who has known the Lord for nearly 40 years. I've spent thousands of hours in God's presence, learning from Him, praying, listening and talking with the Creator of the Universe. I've also spent countless hours talking with other believers, non-believers, and atheists about God, Jesus, and the Bible. I'm what you'd call a "self-made Christian".

Does this approach make me inferior to more formally trained believers and seminary graduates? Absolutely not! For there are many, many people around the world who cannot read or don't have no acces to the Bible. Yet, they have as much, if not more, understanding and wisdom about God as many theologians and so-called "experts" of Biblical studies.

To be honest, I'd rather learn about someone by getting to know them, rather than reading about them. When I got to know my wife, I did so by spending time with her, learning all about her likes, her dislikes and her wonderful proclivities. I did not learn about her by reading a series of books and articles that others had written about her. I believe this to be a superior method, at least for me.

One caveat: when I say "books", I am NOT referring to the Bible. I read the Bible every day. It is God's love-letters to His children. So, getting to know God and Jesus necessitates a consistent, daily reading of the Scriptures, for those of us blessed with access to God's Word.

And that's all I really want to say about myself. Next, let's talk about how Talk Like Friends came to be. Read on, my friend.

Talk Like Friends began with a simple concept: show respect and understanding to others online, no matter what they believe. You see, the team and I have spent an inordinant ammount of time debating people on social media and we all noticed something strange. People were different on a text-based medium. They were, in general, much more angry, thoughtless and narrow-minded. This is probably not a shock to anyone who has spent much time in the "wild west" we call the comments section.

But, we noticed something else. We noticed that when you showed others a monicum of respect and kindness, they began to soften in their own rhetoric. In fact, the more we returned evil with good - as Jesus commands us to do - the more the debate turned into a friendly discussion. Some of these discussions even ended by wishing each other well on our journey to find the truth.

So, right away, we we're making friends out of our enemies. But, that wasn't enough. I personally wanted to take things a step further. I thought "Okay, this will really freak them out" and I began to send people facebook friend requests after we'd had a deep discussion. I remember two in particular. One just ignored me. NBD. The other, Larry (I have permission to use his first name), responded immediately with a message on messenger. At first, I wasn't sure how this was going to go...

LARRY: "Do I know you?"

DUANE: "No, but we had a discussion last week on facebook."

LARRY: "Oh yeah. You we're the guy who was trying to convince me that my beliefs were wrong."

DUANE: "Kinda. I said that God is good despite the suffering in the world."

LARRY: "Yeah. And I said that God can't be good if little children suffer."

DUANE: "So, I guess my thing now is to send people I have discussions with a friend request."

LARRY: "But, you know how I feel about God. How can we be friends?"

DUANE: "Well, one of my best friends is a confirmed atheist and we've been friends for like 30 years."

At this point, there was a long pause and I started wondering if Larry was going to tell me to go jump in the lake. But, that's not how it went:

LARRY: "So, where are you from?"

DUANE: "Dayton, Ohio. You?"

And things progressed from there. In fact, the next day, Larry accepted my friend request and today, Larry is one of my best friends. In fact, he is now part of the Talk Like Friends team and plans to appear on an upcoming video! It was all orchestrated by the Lord. Thank you, Jesus!

Next, God placed it on my heart that instead of reaching one person at a time, I could make online videos, like so many of the apologists I frequently watch. That way, I could reach thousands with the simple message of respect and understanding when discussing God, Jesus and the Bible. And just like that, Talk Like Friends was born.

You need to watch this show!
Why?
Well, let's delve into it...

We start by shooting faith-based videos on very interesting topics from very interesting perspectives. For Example, one show is going to be called "The List". It deals with Paul's list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. I mean, what's going on with that? Other show titles will include "Salvation: Saved From What?", "Faith and Works", "Good News. Bad News" and "Evidence", where we'll discuss several arguments for the existance of God. But, we're not stopping there.

Next, the team and I will meticulously comb through your comments and questions in the comments section of all the major social media platforms. We will choose the most interesting and thought-provoking entries and respond to them with respect and understanding.

Not only that, but we will also post the top comments and questions in the Talk Like Friends Community Forum. Here, members will be encouraged to respond by video or text. Anyone can join and participate in the forum. Here's a link: forum.talklikefriends.com

The Talk Like Friends Community Forum is a safe place for everyone, including Christians, agnostics, atheists, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and everyone else! Members are encouraged to post on the current video's topic using video, meme, image, and text. Members are also encouraged to reply in the same fashion, with respect and understanding, of course.

Our Promise