Lilypie 3rd Birthday Ticker Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker (Mrs.) Carn-Dog's comments: the political landscape of spiritual institutions

Sunday, March 04, 2007

the political landscape of spiritual institutions

Dear people who think Truett is liberal,

Truett is part of the south and when your neighbors are Southwestern and DTS the proverbial Jerry Fallwell and Pat Buchanan, then yes we are liberal.

But in the larger scope of things, namely the more realistic and national scope of things we are far from liberal. In fact we are probably more like John McCain, with a propensity to draw a few socially liberal, yet conservative Rudy Giulianis.

We find ourselves strange bedfellows with certain folk and even work on stuff with the Joe Lieberman’s (the Fuller, Duke, Denver types if you will) every once in a while bringing people like E.P. Sanders to lecture because we think we can learn from people who don’t believe exactly like us, but we are still moderate to conservative.

Liberal I’ll have you know is out east. And if you’ve ever realized that there is more to the United States then the south, you’ll see schools like Vanderabilt the proverbial Hillary Clintons, and Harvard divinity school your proverbial Noam Chomsky. These institutions consider us grossly dogmatic and fundamental. And you well they don’t consider you legit educational institutions.

For a helpful discussion on the relative nature of a fundamentalist see Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief. Just look up “Son of a Bitch” in the index and you’ll find the page.

Your moderately conservative future mega church pastor

Carney

5 comments:

Shea Butta said...

josh josh, this post made me laugh. here's the thing. i have to write a paper on divine goodness for my baylor class and i've talked to my professor about clive stapes being my interest for this paper topic. i'm trying to hone in a perspective to attack this topic. i was thinking about using excerpts from a grief observed, problem of pain, mere christianity, the great divorce, and surprised by joy to examine what clive thinks about divine goodness. i have to make an argument though. i have to say something like "clive staples says this...." and then back it up with examples. the paper has to be 4000 words. its not due till may and i won't start heavy research and writing until after spring break. i was wondering if you had any thoughts on an interesting angle to take. since he doesn't seem to be bound by philosophical or theological restraints, being a literary figure, maybe he offers new perspectives. i don't know. i don't like the topic of divine goodness at all. it may be a philosophical problem but i have yet to see how its a biblical one. anyway, the paper has to be about divine goodness in some respect but other than that we can take some liberties with how we want to come at the issue. i would like to centrally incorporate clive somehow. any thoughts would be great. go reds!

greenISgood said...

One correction, Josh "Warren". Harvard divinity -->> Noam Chomsky? Harvard has unfortunately fallen prey to the grand myth of our century -the corporate profit motive. Hardly, Noam Chomsky. Not even close to an anarchist. The opposite end of the spectrum. (Didn't want Noam's good name to get besmirched in error).

Money Minding Mama said...

Josh,
I don't really care for John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. It's a good thing I like you.
-Noel

Erik said...

Ah you make me chuckle. Somehow I find it hard to label you conservative (in some respects) and even harder to see you as a mega-church pastor (unless what you mean by mega-church is simply one that has a lot of people...but it seems to me mega-church refers to something more specific than that). Nice post, though. Perspective is illuminating. Here at PTS we don't know what the hell we are...we've commie pinkos to blue-blooded Southern debutantes to good ole midwestern simpletons...makes for an interesting mix politically, theologically, and socially. Only one thing unites us...kicking the hell out of each other in flag football.

Mrs. Carn-Dog said...

Shea,

I have one suggestion. Have you heard of a book called "the quotable Lewis?" It organizes all his thoughts on topics alphebetically. Even if it doesn't address "goodness" as a doctrine of God, it would at least organize surrounding issues and make them accessible quickly. I would at least look at it if I were you. Could save you a bunch of time.

Good luck.