Closed Ears and Open Mouths

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.-Ephesians 4:29

I read with great interest the blog post "Ask a Calvinist" on Rachel Held Evans blog on September 8.  Ms Held-Evans has been featuring a series of posts where her readers pose questions to individuals representing various positions, within and outside of Christianity.  She chose Justin Taylor to answer the questions about Calvinism.  Mr Taylor was certainly a good choice.  He has a handle upon the current climate within Calvinism, having previously worked as John Piper's personal assistant and now as a vice president at Crossway Books.  He also authors the popular blog, Between Two Worlds.  Taylor fielded many of the common objections to Calvinism, providing what I read to be gracious informative responses, though admittedly, I consider myself inside his camp theologically. 

Held-Evans's initial post generated significant interest as demonstrated by the comments provided by her readership.  Before public commenting was closed, 223 responses were generated.  Although the comments started amicably enough, they seemed to devolve rather quickly into ad hominem attacks and straw man arguments.  There was also a lack of awareness of church history (e.g., Calvin's role in the burning of Michael Servetus), which is not necessarily a fault of the commenter, though seemed to reveal an attitude of animosity toward John Calvin and Calvinism.  One commenter compared the Calvinist God to Satan.  To her credit, Ms Held-Evans attempted to reign in the particularly egregious commenters.

Justin Taylor provided a link to Held-Evans post on his blog as well.  Given their differing theological opinions, I expected the background, viewpoints, and stated theology of the commenters to differ from those commenting upon Held-Evans blog.  Indeed that was the case.  Taylor's commenters, at least early on, tended toward reformed doctrines.  Like the commenters on Held-Evans blog, the comments here also began civilly enough, but unfortunately, they did not stay that way.  Commenters were questioning Held-Evans's salvation early on and the com-box again devolved into casting dispersions and emotional attacks.  In the effort toward one-upsmanship, no one was listening to anyone else. Everyone was blathering on (using their keyboards, of course) but not really listening.   

Admittedly, I disagree Held-Evans on many issues (e.g., complementarism vs. egalitarianism), but I really struggle when people go so far as to call her a false teacher.  I am not sure that is my determination to make.  Although she can be unduly provocative from time to time, she proved to be a gracious moderator on this post.

Taylor is consistently full of grace and I believe his blog posts regularly demonstrate that.  Like Held-Evans, he also did not engage in the attacks that were taking place.  Even though each of them clearly hold different perspectives, they were gracious and kind to one another.  I wish the same could be said for their readers.

To me, it is little wonder why those outside of Christianity want nothing to do with Christianity when they see such fighting on "Christian" blogs.  There is no grace, no love in this type of commenting.  We often forget that blog comments are public; not only do Christians read them, so do non-Christians.  We need to do a better job of speaking truth in love to one another.  Disagreements can be handled with more grace than we handle them.

Today, Justin Taylor posted a fitting follow up.  He shared some notes from John Newton in a post entitled "How Calvinists Should Engage in Controversy."  It is worthwhile reading for all Christians. 


Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.-Colossians 4:6