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Christianity Today, August, 2009

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Reasoning Together

Christianity Today strives to be a model for respectful conversation.

Mark Galli | posted 8/03/2009 10:08AM

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Evangelical Christianity continues to be a patchwork quilt—a pretty messy one to say the least.

Look at the emergents and the young Reformers and the church-growth gang and the house-church advocates and the ancient-future "priests" and the Pentecostals and the institutional evangelicals (the National Association of Evangelicals, InterVarsity, the Navigators, World Vision, Christianity Today International, and so on), and you'll see what looks like a school playground—lots of cliques, and not much interaction between them.

We often long to return to the time when evangelicals were of one mind and heart. But such a time never existed. To be sure, the Internet has fractured us to an even greater degree, and has allowed us to coalesce around even more narrow concerns (pro-environment, anti-immigration, high-church, tattooed, left-handed evangelicals unite!), and to argue with un-likeminded evangelicals across the great electronic divide. We talk—no, mostly shout—past one another. Very few places remain in our subculture for us to "reason together" about the great issues we must face.

Hoping against hope, Christianity Today is trying to be such a place, and we have the quixotic notion that this can strengthen the spread of the gospel. We not only try to report on a variety of movements within evangelicalism, we also feature voices from diverse perspectives, from Rob Bell to Chuck Colson, from Jim Wallis to John Piper, from Donald Miller to J.I. Packer.

A number of vital issues divide our movement: gospel priorities, biblical interpretation, social justice priorities, the theology of church, the meaning and manner of evangelism, and so on. These disagreements—some of which are deep and serious—do not go away when we huddle with the likeminded.

Christianity Today strives to be a place, in print and online, where those of us who identify with historic evangelicalism can come and reason together about urgent matters, talking to one another and not past one another, talking charitably and not just to score debating points, talking with mutual respect, and talking with the hope that as a result of the talking, we'll all be better prepared to live and share the Good News of Jesus Christ in this badly troubled world.

This issue's cover story is a model of such respectful conversation.

Christianity Today does not have a settled policy on the age when people should marry. We do, however, think it is a subject that needs to be discussed more, so we have invited Mark Regnerus, professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, to articulate what in some circles is a provocative thesis ("The Case for Early Marriage," page 22). We have also invited three people to respond (page 29). We'll continue the conversation online. The point is not to determine what the evangelical take on this issue is, but to give us all deeper insight into how American culture shapes our faith (in this case, our sexuality and our family lives) in so many subtle and profound ways.

Look for similar forums in the months ahead.

Next Issue: Timothy George explains why John Calvin, 500 years after his birth, is more relevant than ever; John W. Kennedy covers big changes at the Falwells' Liberty University; and Sarah Pulliam profiles Joel Hunter's less political side.

Related Elsewhere:

This article was posted with "The Case for Early Marriage," "Restless, Reformed, and Single," and "Weighing Young Weddings" as part of Christianity Today's August cover package.

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August 2009, Vol. 53, No. 8

Comments (15)

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Displaying 1–5 of 15 comments

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John H.

August 08, 2009 4:20pm

Thank you, CT, for providing this forum, and for holding out a high ideal of conversation for it in this article. In practice, it has the advantage over forum-only sites of being focused by clearly thought-out, informed, and sometimes penetrating articles like this one. Gregory Patterson: "for the moment?" Brad: I agree about the "comment structure." One change I would find helpful would be a way to link comments to other comments (other than by name as I'm doing here) so that there could be more conversation among commenters, within the context of the articles. It might also increase the synergy if authors responded to comments on their articles. Susan: yes, it can get overwhelmingly noisy and frivolous "out there." Anonymity doesn't encourage responsibility. But if you exercise discernment, you will also sense the presence of people sincerely questioning, and finding out about, the reason for the hope that is in us: the good news of Jesus and his truth.

susan

August 08, 2009 8:11am

Opinions are very much overrated and lead to nowhere. Opinions are a way to avoid what God HAS said already. We need to stop talk and live as God says in his Word. When someone asks for the reason for the hope that is in him, then speak of the Good News of Jesus and His Truth. There are too many voices out there and too many opinions based on the ways of the world, not of God. The prophets and real disciples spoke what God said to speak, not opinion. This is found in the Word of God, and learned by the Holy Spirit at work in the believer.

Laura

August 07, 2009 8:35pm

This article does not mention the one topic that has been most divisive (among evangelicals I know) in the past year: politics. The emails I receive and the discussions that go on around me are consistently mean-spirited and (usually) not well-informed. CT did a good job of profiling ALL the candidates and issues last year (with a minimum of emotion); I hope that this good example continues.

Brad

August 07, 2009 3:15am

I like your articles, but think the "comment form" is in need of innovation (not just on this site). I don't know why, but the comment form seems to consistently elicit bitterness and complaining. I for one am sick and tired of all the complaining ;)

Chuck

August 05, 2009 2:49pm

I find it amazing that the editorial board would be so concerned about the level of discourse on this subject. Do they really think that anyone actually is going to care what a clergyman of any stripe has to say about when they should marry? That the subject would even be discussed is amazing. It sort of reminds me of something that happened back in the early 1950s. There was a pastor who preached for weeks on end about the evils of television and how no one should even own one. Then he went to do his visiting and every congregant that he visited had a new television in his living room. He got the message and found something better to preach on.

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