On Listening to One Another
We need to listen to people with different perspectives in a variety of different ways to improve our own understanding.
As Everyone Trades Scripts – Again
Immediately after the last election I wrote this. Please read it before you read this. I want to reiterate it today. I have meant it sincerely following every election in which I have been a voter, and I registered to vote at the first opportunity. Speaking with respect is not agreement. It is a way…
Identifying Hatefulness
There are many people concerned about hatefulness right now, and one might think that this concern came largely from opponents of the president-elect. I’ve found, however, that the concern comes from all sides. (“Both sides” is a very dangerous concept in a complex world.) Let me suggest a simple test. When you find a blog…
Why I Believe in Dialogue, Respect, and the Gospel Commission
I’ve recently said and written a few things about the gospel commission, including my claim in my concluding presentation for my video series on eschatology that eschatology is all about the gospel commission. You’ll hear more about this in my foreword to Dave Black’s new book Running My Race. It’s in the final stages of…
Why I Believe in Courtesy
(Image Credit: OpenClipart, qubodup) It seems that many people believe that in order to be firm in one’s convictions, one must be arrogant, loud, and generally rude. Rude and angry speech is praised as telling it like it is. Courtesy is often ridiculed with the incredibly overused term “political correctness.” I object to political correctness…
When to Cut Off Dialogue
I’ve read recently about people cutting off dialogue because of certain behaviors of those on the other side. And indeed, there are times when dialogue becomes futile because someone else refuses to be honest or refuses to engage. I’m writing this simply to appeal to those who want to see more dialogue, more working together,…
My Goal in Fostering Dialogue
I get this question quite frequently: What are you trying to accomplish? If it’s not presented as a question, it’s presented as an assumption. Here are some major options: My goal is to advance a liberal theological agenda, i.e., to make people more liberal by getting conservatives to listen to or read liberal opinions. My…
Finding Boundaries: Confessional Schools and Exploration Related to Publishing
At least I’m going to relate it to publishing. Which, if you think about it, is what I do to almost everything. J. R. Daniel Kirk has announced he will be leaving Fuller (James McGrath comments here). You can get a feel for Dr. Kirk’s comments in Homosexuality Under the Reign of Christ on the…
Seeking, Dialogue, and an Ecumenical Center
I’m an advocate of dialogue in everything, certainly including matters of faith. Sometimes, however, dialogue is confused with seeking. There’s nothing wrong with seeking, but it is not identical with dialogue, though they do overlap. Dialogue can and should occur between people who do have an idea what they believe. It’s hard to have an…
Can Liberal and Conservative Christians Meet Anywhere?
One of my goals as a publisher is to see people from various streams of Christianity talk to one another and learn from one another. I used the labels “liberal,” “charismatic,” and “evangelical” in the home video I made early in the history of my publishing company, Energion Publications. I’m embedding it here for those…