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Jeffrey declares that "every educational project including Christian ones should declare a truth about its own limits," and that, "moral intelligence does not follow from analytical intelligence; it precedes it." Is it in Hauerwasian isolation, and Anabaptist retreat, that a Christian works out a place, or not a place, in the world based on an inherent vision, which is already severely limited in its potentiality by original sin? Or does moral intelligence rather accompany analytical intelligence, more than precede it, creating a Niebuhrian synthesis so that each quality transforms the other, in an encompassing woven spiral of mutual growth? It appears that the evangelicals of today are afraid of knowledge, regardless of its source or precedence of acquisition. Why must that be so if they are confidently convicted of eternal truth?

In "Why Separation of Church and State Is Still a Good Idea," Alan Wolfe quotes Philip Hamburger: "while hostile to Christianity and any other distinct religion, the Liberals glowed with religious intensity." While liberal evangelicals like Garrison abandoned a mainline denominational Christianity that offered no support to their cause, their writings convey an intensely spiritual devotion to God, the creator, and to the rights of all people as endowed in His image and as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. When Wolfe writes of how "strict separationists treat those who disagree with them as un-American," is it not also true that those who desire to dismantle separations also claim a devoted allegiance to an America where pluralism is codified in law, yet claim that it is that same practice of pluralism that is at the relativistic root of an evil in the culture that spawned and protects both parties of contention?

It may not be possible to have it both ways, and as Wolfe avows, "opportunities for corruption are presented whenever government and religion work too closely together." That, indeed, may be so in some cases, but it has not been our experience this summer operating a homeless shelter. Garrison, indeed, rejected partisan politics holding fast to a moral vision that, in the end, swung his way due to the eventual national recognition of the righteousness of his cause. In our local cause and service, the government offers expertise and experience from which our guests have benefited and from which we have learned much. Conversely, the government has witnessed the high value we place on the lives of each person, regardless of circumstances, and that there are other things that are effective, such as intercessory prayer, that are not recognized by officialdom. It's within this partnership with the world, in extraordinary, frequently life-and-death circumstances, that deep has cried out to deep, and where both parties have grown together in witness that all things are possible on heaven and earth, including miracles. It's service that simultaneously functions as an effective non-proselytizing evangelism that sits well in the pluralistic American context. In that sense, then, are we acting as evangelicals as defined today?

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September (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46