His hatred of sin has probably pressured others, including me.

And I am thankful for His hatred of sin, and I am thankful for His pressure. Both directly and indirectly.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be emotional about these issues; but such passions do mean that we’ve got to be all the more intentional in aiming for fair-mindedness. Wouldn’t you agree?

My hate and revulsion of abortion is in no way imposed by “peer pressure.” That is actually one of the most insulting things I have ever read.

This seems to be a justice issue, rather than a pro-life one. There are actually two questions involved here:

Are blacks being condemned to death for murders they did not commit? If so then that is a problem with the governmental implementation of justice and should be rectified.

Are black murders condemned to death more often than white murders? If this is the case, then it would appear that justice is being done more often when blacks commit crimes and less often when whites commit the same crime. That is also a situation that should be rectified.

Should this be an issue that Christians do something about?

Yes, justice should be a concern for all Christians.

Should it be a “life” issue that so many people are on death row DNA testing would exonerate?

I would say it was more of an “implementation of justice” issue.

Yet there are some who argue against doing so?

Really? Who? I don’t think I’ve ever heard an evangelical say that we shouldn’t use DNA evidence that could exonerate those unjustly convicted of a capital offense.

re health care: Well, we (Christians) have failed. Now what?

I’ll agree that Christians have failed. That is why we now have medicare and medicaid. Ideally, though, Christians should be the ones that provide care for the sick who are too indigent to pay.

re catholic church: Perhaps I don’t have a complete understanding. On the other hand, with my wife teaching at a catholic high school for 5 years, you might be surprised what I have learned.

I didn’t mean any offense. But the Catholic Church has made it clear that this other “life” issues are not on the same level as abortion. A Catholic can disagree with the idea that the government should pay for the healthcare of the poor, but they should not disagree about the teachings on abortion.

Your desire is for this blog to move beyond the “partisan political discussions” and to replace those attitudes which simply seek to prove “the superiority of our particular tradition” with attitudes of charitable engagement. This is a worthy aspiration, but I don’t see how it can be achieved if those on the Masthead should refuse to actively welcome and promote critical reflection on the usual conservative evangelical positions regarding any of the hotly contested issues–issues for which you seek to be a “prophetic witness” (which, apparently, include such as abortion, the death penalty, conservative views of distributive justice, etc.).

To achieve fair-mindedness on these issues–and the sort of fair-mindedness that most evangelicals themselves embrace in most other contexts–I think you must do one of two things. You must either provide up front a list of presupposed “truths” regarding these hotly contested issues (that is, give a list of statements such as: “We are committed to view that abortion is immoral,that the Bible requires us to support capital punishment,” etc.), or you must welcome a critical discussion of these things, however obvious they may seem to you. A fair-minded approach towards these issues would involve an attempt to call into question those assumptions, which, while seemingly obvious within “our particular tradition,” look highly dubious from the outside–even by those who grant truth of the Gospel and biblical inerrancy.

I read Evangel & First Thoughts every 2 or 3 days; like David (comment 18) I have appreciated the diversity of evangelical viewpoints represented here as well as each one’s staunch defense of their own traditions. For me, I enjoy this blog far more than single tradition blogs because it expose me to different streams of evangelical ideas – ones I rarely encounter in my own church community. I rarely visit “echo chamber” sites.

With regard to politics, I think that this blog should touch on political topics that are of interest to evangelicals – even if they overlap “partisan” discussions. I don’t think there are any issues with it doing so from the individual perspectives of its contributors, even if they disagree with each other.

Both political and religious disagreements could allow this blog to model the respectful discussion that is so needed in the evangelical world. I’ve always admired First Things for being a leader in Christian intellectual scholarship and occasionally noted that evangelical Christendom would do well to have a simlar quality (& similarly accessible) outlet for thought. For this reason, I welcomed the Evangel blog and hope it can continue to address the most relevant issues of our day.

Is the death penalty applied in a just and fair manner? Should this be an issue that Christians do something about? Should it be a “life” issue that so many people are on death row DNA testing would exonerate? Yet there are some who argue against doing so?

re health care: Well, we (Christians) have failed. Now what?

re catholic church: Perhaps I don’t have a complete understanding. On the other hand, with my wife teaching at a catholic high school for 5 years, you might be surprised what I have learned.

“It is simply irrefutable that the BioLogos project is deeply entrenched in obliterating what’s described in my fifth point, and in engaging in activities covered by my fourth point. This is their chief aim — as it is the aim of every cult, post-orthodoxy, which finds itself wanting to appease some other authority apart from or above Scripture. This assertion requires more than just saying it is so. Look for my exposition of this in the near future.

…

I used strong words last week to underscore my exit from Evangel over this issue, and I stand by all of it. I will in fact be spending most of the rest of this year spelling out what I mean by it all by demonstrating it from the BioLogos site — an activity which will not convert one soul to the Gospel and in that respect be an almost-useless activity from an evangelistic standpoint. But while the saving of the lost is a critical issue, protecting the saved is another, and that’s the goal here.”

From Frank Turk’s post today titled: Doxology of the Scientific Method.

That could certainly be the case, though I think the questions about the issue have been resolved for at least two decades. In fact, I think it is indeed a matter of sound reasoning from biblical premises as most evangelicals—both liberal and conservative—would normally concede.

A fair-minded discussion of the morality of abortion would probably begin with the question: Where in the bible does it give us warrant to kill a human being at the earliest stages of development?

I think the impetus is for those who think abortion can be squared with biblically-based morality to make their case so that we can address their position fairly.

david carlson - Death Penalty

The Bible not only endorses the death penalty, but requires is for the crime of murder.

Govt Health Care for the Poor

I suspect most evangelicals—like most other Christians—would argue that caring for the poor is the job of the church. The government only has to intervene when we have failed to do our duty.

Food programs for low income women, infants and children

See above.

If your going to argue for govt intervention in availablity of abortion (as many Christians do) then what about govt intervention in any other aspect of the sanctity of life?

That’s an odd question. We are asking the government to intervene to protect a human being from being directly killed by another human being. That is one of the primary functions of government. None of the other things you mentioned are necessarily roles that the government should take on.

It’s definately an area the Catholics have a much more consistant world view

I think you may be misunderstanding the Catholic position.

:-)

I think the decision is a good one. I have a suspicion that to do what you say you want to do will require further fine-tuning.

Happy Birthday, and God bless you as you seek to serve the Lord through this outlet.