I have been thinking about this a lot lately and having some conversations about some of these difficult issues. Thank you, Ellen, for holding a mirror to the church and reminding us of who we need to follow and reflect, even if it flies in the face of the way of thinking we may have been polarized to believe.

I appreciate you addressing some of my response to your “Obama in Cairo” post in this recent post. It felt kind of cool being the mysterious “friend” (NOT the Baptist friend), but know you are always free to use my name … as long as you quote me accurately . Allow me to continue the dialogue.

My initial response was to go point-by-point, again responding to some of the areas I feel like you have overly generalized or outright misrepresented the positions of many Christians, conservatives, Republicans, and/or Bush. But instead, I’ll try to just stick to a few general things.

First, it’s important one knows I was very happy with Obama’s speech in Cairo. Like I said in my response, while I could have picked at a few things, I thought overall it was thoughtful, well-spoken, and inspiring in many ways. And believe it or not, many conservatives felt the same way. So I thought it was unfortunate you chose to turn it into another chance to sling mud on conservatives and Bush. And yes, I also think you speak exceedingly glowing of Obama and I have yet to see a single honest critique of anything he’s done from you – not even killing a fly on national television (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_dead_fly) . But I’m glad to hear you don’t think he is the Messiah (though I can’t say I believed you quite thought that) and that you “reserve the right to critique him” (no offense, but I won’t hold my breath for that).

Next, I think it is extremely important that you define some of the terms that you use rather often. Maybe you have done this in prior posts that I didn’t catch. If so, please refer me there. For example, I respect that your “first concern has been and always will be the Church”. This is definitely a very worthy “concern”. But I am curious what exactly “the Church” is to you. In your critiques, who exactly are you referring too? Is it the majority of self-proclaimed Christians? The vast majority? Almost all? Just the conservative or Republican ones? Just the ones that voted for McCain? And are you referring just to “the Church” in the U.S.? It’s always a little dangerous generalizing a group, especially one so vast. I’m also curious what exactly you mean by “dualism”? I’m guessing it has something to do with the idea that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, but I think it would help to clarify it (at least for nerds like me ), since that term has had a variety of meanings throughout history, namely in what two elements it is referring to (mind/matter, right/wrong, good/evil, etc), and especially if that is what has kept us from a “truly Christian worldview”, as you claimed. And finally, “modernism”? Even if it is a concise definition, I’m curious what you think is entailed in that.

Next, I think you should really make an effort to explain and/or give specific examples of some of your critiques and accusations against evangelical Christians, conservatives, Republicans, and Bush. For example, why would you put Bush and McCain in the modernistic camp and Obama in the postmodern camp? Or an example of Bush speaking “from that same old posture of us vs. them, we are right and you are wrong”. Or why did Bush seem unteachable to you (something more than “stay the course”)? Or how have conservative Christians “bought into [the idea] that others must come to see our point of view. We are right and they are wrong.”? And how has Obama “moved a bit beyond that”? You make a lot of claims and accusations as if they are just true because you said so. Unfortunately that works with many people (especially when it gets repeated enough), but I think it would be valuable to the discussion to go a little deeper.

Next, I think you might be confusing people’s agreement on a number of specific issues, with blindly espousing or “merging” with conservative or Republican principles. You seem to believe most evangelical Christians just blindly espouse whatever position is conservative or Republican, instead of believing they just might actually believe some of the conservative or Republican principles are right, or more in line with what Jesus and the Scriptures teach. For example, I don’t believe most Christians are against abortion JUST BECAUSE it is a conservative or Republican principle. They are against abortion because they believe that is more in line with what Jesus and the Scriptures teach. Or that most Christians don’t prefer a smaller government JUST BECAUSE it is a conservative or Republican principle, but because they do NOT believe government is the highest power and our hope for a better world. I obviously could go on. That’s why I think it would help for you to focus more on the specific issues you disagree with instead of just attacking the groups.

Ellen, much of what you bring up resonates strongly and positively with me and I would encourage anyone to read your blog, as well as those you reference. But I can’t resist registering my disagreements because I think some of your tone is harmful to healthy dialogue and that some of your ideological proclamations are misleading or misinformed.

Your fellow servant in Christ,
Gregg

It saddens me to see my brothers and sisters in Christ being afraid of someone who builds a bridge … always thinking that it is a an End Times red flag when it was what Jesus wants us to do.