Current letters are below. To read past letters and responses, see the Listener Mail archive.

(Correspondents’ names have been withheld from the first few letters since the writers did not send them in anticipation of being published. We will, however, require signed letters for all future postings.)

Unbiblical Lee

Dear Ken,

As Pastor to Senior Adults in a large evangelical church in Canada, I was fascinated by Lee Harris's The Future of Tradition. I found myself saying Amen! to much of it, especially the need for parental "shining lights" to guide the next generation—by example and not ideas only. As you wrote in “The Necessity of Tradition,” there are important applications in Harris's article for the church. In my ministry, I struggle continually to keep older adults in the mainstream of church life so their godly influence can reach the youth. And Harris's treatment of gay marriage is right on—poignant, considering his own sexual orientation.

I am disappointed, however, that Harris' philosophy and world view are based almost exclusively, it seems to me, on Hegel's dialectic rather than anything like biblical revelation. This is particularly apparent in Civilization and Its Enemies, which I had read previously. Intriguingly, the book seems to downgrade the family to a primitive level in the evolution of civilization. In the article, Harris elevates the family, along with the institution of marriage, to a basic ingredient in a recipe for societal advance. Did you notice the contradiction?

Frankly, Ken, I am surprised you considered interviewing Harris, since your goal is to look at culture through the lens of Christian faith. Maybe your intent was to hold him up as a "mirror" (a la Peter Leithart) for the kind of thinking people of faith should be good at and aren't. Otherwise, I'm tempted to wonder if you've taken time to read Harris thoroughly.

Sincerely,

Name withheld
Calgary, AB

Response:

Dear ______,

I sympathize with your disappointment at the foundations of Lee Harris's thought. As I mentioned in my brief on-line article, my interest in interviewing him was prompted (prior to my even seeing his book) by the encouragement of several of my subscribers, not because I believed his work to be perfectly sound.

But of course, not many of my guests are perfectly sound. Many of my guests are astute observers of historical and cultural phenomena who do not (in my view) situate their observations in a framework that is in accord with a Christian philosophy. But their observations are nonetheless helpful for Christians at one level or another.

Meanwhile, there are many Christian commentators with good theology who have never developed a theoretical framework of cultural understanding based on good theology, and many more who just haven't been paying attention to what has been going on. Good theology is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for wise Christian thinking about culture. So to paraphrase a quip attributed to Luther, I would rather interview wise Turks than foolish Christians.

God's blessings on your ministry,

Ken Myers