I noticed several things that were glaringly missing from this.  Anyone want to take a stab at what they are?

Issues, Etc. is one of my favorite radio programs.  It is a big reason why I am a Lutheran today.

I first started listening to the show back at the end of June 2008 when it came back on the air after its cancellation.  I had found out about it through Kim Riddlebarger (one of the hosts of the White Horse Inn) talking about its cancellation on his blog.

At the time I was a quite unhappy evangelical with Reformed leanings, having had my pietistic Arminianism shattered by the folks at the White Horse Inn.  I remember being somewhat skeptical of Lutheranism (though very intrigued by it) when I first started listening to Issues, Etc.  On one of the first few programs I listened to, Pr. Wilken and his guest were talking about the Sacraments and Baptismal regeneration and I remember thinking, "I don't think I could ever believe THAT."

Heh, heh, heh.  So I thought at the time.

I kept listening.  And listening.  And listening.  And couldn't stop listening.  It was ALL. ABOUT. CHRIST.  For me. 

The more I listened, the more it all started to make Scriptural sense.  And the show, through its guests, led me to other shows such as Fighting for the Faith and The God Whisperers which further helped me to understand the Biblical basis for Lutheran theology.

So I have a lot for which to thank the folks at Issues, Etc.  And I thank God for their truly Christ-centered and cross-focused ministry. 

…religious pluralism is logically just as exclusivistic as the Christian — or any other faith. The pluralistic-sounding Dalai Lama actually turns out to be quite the exclusivist. He has declared that Tibetan Buddhism is “the highest and complete form of Buddhism”: “Only Buddhists can accomplish” what is necessary for liberation. Likewise, religious pluralism is just as “biased” and “exclusivistic” regarding the status of religious truth-claims. The religious pluralist believes that his view is true and that the exclusivist — whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist — is wrong in rejecting pluralism. The pluralist believes he has a virtue the Christian or Muslim does not. Pluralism implies that Christians need to abandon belief in Jesus’ deity, atoning death, and resurrection — beliefs that pluralists take to be literally false and simply inspiring metaphors or symbols. Though the Christian faith is a particular exclusivism, religious pluralism is a generic exclusivism: if the pluralist is correct, then the central doctrines of the world’s great religions are false.

Read the rest of the article here.