Snyder, Prentice and Faith in Public Life

In the link below, Melissa Rogers said: "Many are tired of the brain dead debates, and the nastiness". She went on to say big issues are at stake and it is way passed time to move forward.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1011/p02s01-ussc.html
I hope this CSM article sets up nicely my original blog earlier this afternoon about the discussion at bl.com


Earlier blog
Uncle Prentice is apparently keeping a close eye on my blog cause it is hard to believe he woulda been aware of the Third Way Initiative if he hadn't found it linked here.
It is a shame that in his misrepresentations and shadings in the post "Come let us Reason Together" in the SBC Trends forum at www.baptistlife.com/forums he did not also mention the weekend conference at Yale where Richard Land, Randall Balmer, Jim Wallis and Ralph Reed, came together for discussion.
Dan Nejfelt has a blog up today at http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/ trying to do a "Christian" thing and that is speak honestly to some of the same demagogic misgivings emanating from James Dobson's Family Research Council Prentice is spewing at bl.com
http://blog.faithinpubliclife.org/2007/10/post_29.html
I doubt Marc Olson would be very proud of the way Prentice has shaded this good faith effort at faith in public life; and I doubt former Snyder Memorial Pastor Crocker or most of the progressives on the Carson Newman Trustee board are very proud of my Dad's brother today. In fact I imagine they are a little embarassed.
That is not to say I have lived a perfect life, nor the folks at faith in public life.
It is just to say I think Wake Forest's Melissa Rogers had it right; and I paraphrase: It is time to try to get passed the brain dead issues and move toward some justice issues where we may build across the political spectrum with people of good will toward a prophetic stance in America's political discussion.
Google Up Melissa's Roger's blog. She is much more cogent and eloquent than me.
Here is hoping, like I commented today on Nejfelt's blog, for a little more sanity at my suspended former stomping ground, Bl.com

Here is Melissa Rogers in her own words
There are real and important differences between many evangelicals and progressives on issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and religious liberty. But, as “Come Let Us Reason Together” demonstrates, those differences do not mean that there is no common ground on these matters, and it certainly does not mean that there is no point in talking to one another. For example, I applaud Third Way for noting that we can affirm a vital role for religion in the public square, while respecting the constitutional prohibition on government-backed religion, and I look forward to further conversations in this area. On these and other matters, this document helps us to reach across religious and political lines for conversation, identify places where common ground has been hidden by mistrust or mischaracterization, and foster a climate of respect. Thanks to Third Way for its leadership on all these fronts.-Melissa Rogers, J.D.Visiting Professor of Religion and Public Policy, Wake Forest University Divinity School; former Director, ThePew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
And read all the testimonials, many of which I feel confident would delight a sizable portion of the membership of congregations like Snyder Memorial if through God's grace they are brought unfettered to their attention.
http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/content/feature/faith_in_public_life_and_third.html

Sfox
See links in my Balmer/Third Way blog of Friday.


In meantime here is a link on Land to consider.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/64844/

Uncle Prentice, Snyder folks and others may want to check Melissa Rogers blog often to get a better word on what I have to believe marney would be right smack dab in the middle of were he still with us.
http://melissarogers.typepad.com/melissa_rogers/2007/10/more-on-come-le.html