Prof. John Stackhouse’s Weblog

GEEZ magazine has recently offered what they call a typology of contemporary evangelicalism. We pedants would prefer the term “taxonomy”–since typologies set out ideal types while taxonomies classify real-world instances–but hey: GEEZ is too hip to use an odd word like “taxonomy.”

Anyhow, GEEZ puts me in a category they call “liberal evangelical.” And some of their readers have contacted me to ask me what I think of that categorization.

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This time of year, preachers are constantly telling us to “put Christ back into Christmas.” Well, maybe.

My beloved and I watched the first Christmas episode of the old “Mary Tyler Moore Show” at lunch today. (For you youngsters, this was a very popular comedy that won multiple Emmys and would likely seem impossibly slow, dull, and predictable to you.)

Anyhow, the show was a telling statement of how fully Christ had already been edged out of what I call “Kris-mass” (the celebration of Kris Kringle, not Christ). In one scene, Mary’s desk at work is shown completely decorated with Santa stuff. Her boss jovially asks her, “Well, there isn’t room for anything else. Do you have a nativity scene in your drawer?”

Mary scores the quick laugh by ruefully opening a drawer to show her boss, indeed, a nativity scene. And the quiet punchline ensues: “I just didn’t have time to set it up.” No, perhaps not–but, by Kringle, you had time to do everything else that is Krismassy, didn’t you, Mar’?

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A reporter talked with me today about a poll he tried to take of Canadian Members of Parliament, on behalf of the major print medium for which he works (and which discretion forbids me to identify).

He noted that about half of the MPs’ offices failed to return his calls, and of those that did, more than half of them refused to participate. Of the minority, then, that did participate, a majority said they were religious. He asked me what I thought of these numbers. And so I’ll tell you what I told him:

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I’d really like to know. I’m still mostly a print guy–I subscribe to a dozen magazines and read more of them on-line (as well as Google News daily), especially through the excellent Arts and Letters Daily digest.

My university-age sons enjoy blogs, however, as do many of my students. So that’s what I’d like to know from anyone who happens upon this blog: Why do you read them? Why do you respond to them? And what would you like to see in a blog like this?

Here’s what I’m afraid of: that I’ll spend time blogging that could better be spent reading and thinking, and then writing less, but of better quality and to a bigger audience.

Am I just technologically behind the times? I’d really like to know.

It has taken considerable convincing for me to start a weblog. We’re all busy, so a blog needs to do something worthwhile. What would this one do?

First, it would provide a safe place for people to raise questions about my main area of professional and personal interest: the intersection of faith and culture. By “safe” I mean a place where religious and spiritual and philosophical questions are welcome and taken seriously, and where people respond with civility, concern, and intelligence. No orthodoxy is required to participate in this conversation, just goodwill, kindness, and the perseverance necessary to state something carefully, listen to responses just as carefully, and respond in kind.

There are other places to discuss such matters seriously, of course, but they tend to press one to a particular conclusion: notably such places as churches, synagogues, temples, and the like, or families of believers. Not everyone feels welcome to raise awkward or challenging questions therein.

Society at large tends not to take religious and spiritual and philosophical matters seriously, unless it has to do with terrorism, the “holiday wars,” or some other site of conflict. So on this blog, I hope we can discuss things that really matter without feeling obliged to convince everyone else of our version of things.

That’s the main reason for this blog: to ask questions and discuss answers.

Another reason, the reason behind any personal blog, is to communicate with those who might like to hear what the blogger has to say about something, and then engage him or her further in conversation. Some of you might have read something I have written, or heard me speak someplace, and would like to raise a new point or carry on a discussion that just got started in those other settings. I welcome such engagement.

I intend to post something at least weekly for your consideration, and I also will respond promptly to issues raised by others. I’ll give this a go for a few months and see if it’s worth my while and yours. Thanks for reading so far, and I hope you’ll feel most welcome to participate. I look forward to hearing from you.