Dr. Adrian Warnock who started an aggregator called the Blogdom of God has marked his 2000th post.  This one caught my attention. Adrian has a professional competency (psychiatry) and peace making skills that show well in his plea to two US bloggers who have their own set of fans, not to get into another round of hostility. The battle between Michael Spencer and Phil Johnson (Baptists) last year involved a lot of denominational theology and was the most polarizing and heated flame wars in the religious sector of blogs I’ve ever seen.
He begins by identifying where he is coming from watching potential rumblings of another spat between these two men.
This time, for some reason I am not sure of, I feel compelled to say something even before any possible fight gets out of hand. Why? Because I feel that the tone of some of these disagreements can quickly become frankly repugnant, and I am crazy enough to think that an intervention like this might actually help (it will probably make things worse by offending BOTH camps and perhaps even lose me both of my regular readers!). Why? Because it bothers me that seeing what appears to be open blog warfare at times is an appalling witness. Why? Because I enjoy reading pieces that both Michael and Phil have written and feel that they BOTH have useful things to say to the modern church. Why? Because quite frankly I sometimes feel the urge to bash certain people’s heads together.
It bothers me, that for many of us, and I fear that perhaps I should at times include myself in this we have a tendency to want to stand more AGAINST something than FOR something.
He then defines the current problem between the two as he sees it. As a lay preacher, Warnock has a similar passion for theology, but is a bit more detached than some of the fans of the two men. Being in the UK, he is undoubtedly perceived as an outsider, and perhaps better equipped to observe and define. Adrian then points out what the two warring men have in common, and commends any step they have made to be civil and accommodating. He reminds us that simple words can have different meaning to the writer and the responder and that is wise to check and see where the person we disagree with is coming from.
Interestingly Phil and Michael seemed to have stumbled upon the fact that some of their differences stem from a different understanding of what the word “evangelicalism” means. Given some of my own recent discussions with cessationists where we discovered that a lot of our disagreement centered around the different understandings of what the word “prophecy” meant I found that interesting. Words really do matter and we find that all too often we can simply talk past people because we are using the same words to mean totally different things.
Alternating between clear chiding of each one for obtuseness and quick offense, he balances that out with praise for each where praise is due. He then gives three simple ideas all of us need to keep forefront and ends where anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ should be focusing – on Christ, and Christ alone.
1. Arguments are best avoided wherever possible
2. Kindness, gentleness and patient endurance of evil however does NOT preclude teaching and correcting opponents.
3. There is a battle that transcends the merely intellectual arenaIt strikes me that we should be more sensitive to the fact that our job is not to win arguments but to win people. That is our job is not to merely persuade people of the intellectual truth of our theology but to help people get to know the person Jesus more and more.
There is another power struggle going on in the hidden realm that directly impacts on our theological conversations. This battle is between the blindness that the devil would seek to bring to all of us and the light that the Spirit would shine upon us. It really is down to God to grant both unbelievers and believers who think differently repentance – unless this happens we can argue till we are blue in the face and no change will occur.
Dare I say it, perhaps on some issues WE are the ones who are blind and need Gods revelation to see the truth!
Fortunately most of the content of the spats between IMonk and Pyromanic are of interest to a few theological geeks, unfortunately there are others all to happy to fan the flames of clashing egos and strong egos and intellects. A fair number of wannabe preachers or students get sucked in and I wonder if they take sides of the personalities more than the theology as often claimed. Since this is a clash between Baptist men, it is other men, not women who jump into the fray.
I think this is the best post I’ve seen Dr. Warnock put up - he is using his professional skills and god-given talents of peace making, I admire his courage in speaking up. There are other mature bloggers that encourage civility, gentleness and humbleness in the blogosphere, and it is good to see the older and more mature speak to their own and to the younger ones. Peace making takes courage, humbleness and a unique skill set, and this post is well done. Let’s hope Spencer and Johnson will be able to hear.
Update: That was kind of Phil Johnson to quote me at his blog and give BDBO a link. This post is about Dr. Warnock, but since I said what I said about what I’ve seen, perhaps Phil or someone who reads this can enlighten me as to what is ’the most polarizing and heated flame wars in the religious sector of blogs’, as in denominational or theological, not political, national or personal. I hope Dr. Warnock’s effort’s are not dismissed because of the subject matter.
