It seems to me that there has been a recent, underlying contentiousness in public speech. From shouts on the floor of Congress, to tirades on the tennis court, to protests in Washington, to even a Hall of Fame acceptance speech by one of the world’s most revered athletes, Michael Jordan, a level of hostility seems to embody our language and prevent actual dialogue. And I must admit, that I too am guilty of this. As many of you remember, I penned a blog article a couple months ago about the Baptist Joint Committee, where I too was loose with language and underscored my argument with contentious discourse. It even seems that my initiation of the conversation led to an even further hostile argument between two follow-up commentators (see the conversation following the post, http://cbfblog.com/2009/07/12/acute-schizophrenia-or-whats-wrong-with-the-bjc/#comments.) I also want to apologize to those who engaged in the blog conversation for my noted absence, but I felt distinct localized pressure to keep quiet for awhile. Hopefully the questions of some of the commentators will be answered in future posts.

Now, two months later I have had adequate time to reflect. In the end, I was reminded through the fallout of my article of the importance of language. My post opened the argument with a level of hostility that permeated through the rest of the conversation. Many others responded equally as harshly, both online and in person, and those events too have taught me something about the nature and reality of our Christian life together. As a young minister, my – perhaps naïve – vision has been somewhat dulled and constricted. But in a time when it seems contentious discourse is all we hear, I have had other reminders of hope.

One of the most significant, ironically, came in the form of Brent Walker, director of the BJC. Brent and I shared a meaningful phone conversation shortly after my post, a conversation I believe we both approached humbly and openly. He welcomed me in dialogue, and we have, I think, encouraged each other. My biggest regret in looking back over these events is that while I am a self-confessed pacifist, Brent maintained a more non-violent posture – at least as far as language is concerned. I had the pleasure of seeing Brent a few days ago, as he was visiting in Atlanta, and when we first saw each other, he came over and hugged me – a sign that to me embodied the mercy, forgiveness, love, and hope of Jesus’ message. This is a memory and a lesson I will never forget. While we still do not agree on the issues at hand, in that moment we were simply friends in Christ and partners in the gospel showing hospitality and grace.

I am sure this conversation on religious liberty and church and state will not end here. I still think the theological approach to this issue that I and other more “radical” Baptists have is worth discussing. But in the mean time, I wanted to publicly acknowledge a practice of hospitality and grace by a fellow minister who is passionate about God’s mission of blessing all the people of the world.