Thanks, Nathan.

Patrol is Sam Phillips, all over again. Sort of right, and very wrong. In fact, Patrol is the ECUSA all over again, in 20something garb.

Hehe, I had no idea that evangelicalism was supposed to be dead. I must not be an especially bright child.

There is a distinction to be made here between those former Evangelicals who break ranks for “post-evangelicalism” and those who actually uproot in order to join “pre-evangelicalism”.

I can’t shake the feeling that the most acute and brilliant thinkers of the ancient Church would embarrass the oh-so-cool and modern post-evangelical terribly with talk of the resurrection, salvation, the Cross, Heaven, and Hell.

Perhaps it’s not really the excesses and failings of Evangelicalism (which are numerous and real) that Patrol Mag is embarrassed by; perhaps it is Christianity itself, with all its latent supernatural realities, that burns them.

Flannery O’Connor’s “The Violent Bear it Away”, anyone?

Evangelical’s “brightest children are throwing up their hands in record numbers, defecting heavy-heartedly to less temporal churches, or to no church at all.” So, I’d assume that those of us left in evangelicalism are far from the brightest, because if so, we’d have left long ago, right? Is it me, or do I detect some of that hubris that is only supposed to be infecting “modern” evangelicalism?

I honestly had no idea that this was a formerly evangelical or “post-evangelical” Christian publication. That makes things much more interesting.

Fantastic point. Just because something doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it’s dead or dying.

I’ve lived all over the country in both urban and rural areas, and one thing I’ve learned is that people everywhere are asking different questions. What “works” in rural Ohio may not work in downtown Dallas or the Pacific Northwest. Yet, it’s not fair to write off an expression of faith that works well in one area but not in another as “dead” or “dying.”

I’m beginning to think that the phrase “American culture” has very little meaning. Sure, Americans have a lot in common–same language, we drive on the right side of the road, etc. But pockets of American sub-cultures have more in common with the people in their own tribe than they do with the larger American culture. What can someone in New York tell us about what is going on in Seattle?

you know you did good when there is someone (and it could be anyone) who says, “well, your evidence is my evidence, so we’re both saying the same thing,” even when the other guy is famous for saying something other than what you just said.

Welcome to the party.