Sunday, March 08, 2009

The truth is somewhere in the middle

"It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes." ~Ecclesiastes 7:18

This is exactly why I love how Lutheran theology stresses a balance of both law AND gospel. Too liberal and you either think that all roads lead to Heaven and you don't need Jesus, or that He's just a social reformer or great teacher but not God. Too conservative and your doctrine and dogma or "traditional values" start to become your god instead of letting Jesus be God and you scare people away who might otherwise find His mercy and grace.

I love how at least Mike Huckabee and Obama started to get Evangelicals thinking that hey, maybe unprovoked war and poverty and good stewardship of the environment can be Christian issues too, there's more to faith that these never ceasing "culture wars."

I also hope that Lutherans, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, AME, Quaker and everybody else have started to figure out that the so called "Evangelicals" (whoever that is anyway, Baptist & Assembly of God, I think) are not the only Christians in the United States and they shouldn't be the only ones who get to drive the national conversation about faith let alone get to be who gets to define what a Christian is to unbelievers and people of other religions out there.

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