No More Hope for America

by John G. Turner

Last week's NYT op-ed by Karl Giberson and our own Randall Stephens has generated plenty of attention.

Such controversy continues today at National Review Online, where Dennis Prager concludes:

If these professors typify the views of Eastern Nazarene, which is officially listed as a Christian university, it is reason for despair. Once left-wing values enter the evangelical bloodstream, there is almost no hope for America.

I suppose the "almost" means that there is still a slim, glimmer of hope left. Thanks goodness.

Comments

Paul Harvey said…
John: blog readers may be interested in this fascinating collection of letters/responses to the NY Times editorial, a nice sampling of opinion/reactions: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/opinion/can-science-and-faith-exist-together.html?_r=2&ref=letters
Randall said…
It is truly the end of the world as we know it. I'm going to grab that "End is Near" sandwich board out of my closet and start wearing it around my campus.
John G. Turner said…
In Prager's defense, one could make that argument about university professors. I don't think he made it very effectively, however, and I thought it was mean-spirited to allege that ENC is not really a Christian institution. Surely everyone there isn't so heretical as you, Randall.
As your book points out, Randall, so much of this is based on the notion of inerrancy. The book's juxtaposition of two kinds of evangelicalism means that these critics of heretical Randall must also have to argue that Francis Collins is a heretic too? Randall, get you sandwich board.

But then again, we should remember that Ham and Barton have a different agenda from Collins and Mark Noll: one wants to understand the goings on of this world, the other wants to evangelize for the next. It's just too damn bad the terrain overlaps as much as it does.
I had no idea that Ralph Lord Roy (one of the letter writers) was still alive. He wrote a critique of American Christianity that mentioned several figures Darren Dochuk treats in his From Bible Belt to Sunbelt (including some real anti-Semitic figures). It was published in 1953 by Beacon Press: http://books.google.com/books?id=3tsrAAAAIAAJ&dq=Ralph%20Lord%20Roy&source=gbs_book_other_versions

I guess he still reads his NY Times.
Paul Harvey said…
I knew Randall when he was a graduate student. Now he's almost singlehandedly responsible for the decline and fall of America. It really makes me proud to have a one-time mentee like that.

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