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He would die if he knew (please, no one tell him), but when Christian radio talk show host and all-around nice guy Drew Marshall called me the other day to see how I was doing, I was on the beach at San Onofre, California … naked.

All in the name of journalism.

Nudists on that stretch of beach have (successfully, so far) argued in court that not wearing a swimsuit on an isolated beach is not a crime. I’m big on skinny dipping (late at night, in the dark, after a few cocktails), but exposing myself in the middle of the day, in public, seemed wrong (at least once I got down to the sand).

But I’m an investigative journalist, and had to see what was going on for myself.

So I had just slipped off my board shorts, put sunscreen on all the appropriate places, sat back on my beach chair and enjoyed the early September sun. Then my phone rang. It was Drew Marshall, Canadian’s best Christian radio talk show host. I wanted to tell him he had caught me without a stitch of clothing, but I decided on a bit of modesty.

Drew is the kind of Christian I wish I ran into more often when I was a Christian. Open, honest, hip, humble. He is someone who “gets it.” At times, I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I was surrounded by the Drew Marshalls of Christianity and not the endless parade of hypocrites, liars and pretenders.

I’d like to think I would have reach to a same conclusion — that there is no personal God looking after me — but I know it would have taken me years, if not decades, to come to the same understanding.

Christians should promote Drew Marshall and listen to his show. If Christianity is going to thrive, he’s your man.