REMANATIONS

For the past couple of months, I’ve been wanting to interact with an article in the most recent issue of The City, a publication of Houston Baptist University. I’ve been waiting for the relevant article to be put online and, since it’s now there, I can begin.

The article is by Ryan T. Anderson and is entitled “A Political Road Not Taken.” It was one in a series of articles on the 2008 election called “Where Do We Go From Here: A Forum.” Here is Anderson’s professional biography from the blog he edits, Public Discourse:

Ryan T. Anderson is editor of Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good. Previously he was the assistant editor of First Things and a Fellow of the Phillips Foundation. His articles have appeared in First Things, the Weekly Standard, National Review, the New Atlantis, the Claremont Review of Books, Touchstone, Books and Culture, Christianity Today, and the Human Life Review. Anderson is an alumnus of Princeton University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.

Because I plan to interact critically with Anderson’s article (meaning, I will take issue with a number of his prescriptions), I want to make clear at the outset that I have nothing personal against Mr. Anderson. Judging by his professional history, I assume that he is a fellow Christian (though I’m unsure of his denominational affiliation) and, if I remember correctly, I’m also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. I greatly admire his work over at Public Discourse, read First Things whenever I can get my hands on it, and I love HBU’s The City and would recommend subscribing to it (it’s free!). Disagreement with his position shouldn’t be interpreted as dislike for the man.

What’s more, the reason that I chose his article is because I think it is one of the more thoughtful and clear examples of a viewpoint regarding Christian engagement in the public square that I think is very common among Christians. It’s also a perspective that I have some sympathy for, even if at the end of the day I disagree. So I’m engaging Mr. Anderson as a fellow Christian on a topic that more followers of Jesus should be giving serious thought to.

So have a look at his article, and feel free to make yourself known in the comments.