In my post on Craig Groshel I mentioned my concern with his suggestion for an amicable separation. I understand where he is coming from, and have had similar thoughts myself, but right now I’m trying to commit to this idea of the “radical center” that Adam Hamilton mentions. Hamilton’s analysis in Seeing Gray is great, and too long to post in full, but here’s a taste of where he’s at:
“Some in the political and social realm are speaking of a third way between the left and right as the ‘radical center’ that is able to hold together the best of the right and the left, and which forges something more powerful and true, and, in the case of faith, more authentically Christian, as a result.
“The radical center within the Christian faith embraces the evangelical gospel that proclaims that human beings are wounded by sin and are in need of saving, and that Jesus Christ is God’s antidote to our human condition. And it embraces the social gospel that seeks to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and recognizes the Christian’s responsibility for addressing the great problems of poverty, oppression, racism, the environment and war. The evangelical gospel without the social gospel is spiritual narcissism. The social gospel without the evangelical gospel remains afflicted by sin and holds, in the words of the Apostle Paul ‘the the outward form of godliness but denying its power’ (2 Timothy 3:5a). The radical center holds that the gospel is incomplete without both its evangelical and social witness.”
You can find Hamilton’s book here:
Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics
