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I Do Happen To Be Dogmatic About, Well, Dogma

 I am gratified that I maintain relationships across the Christian world, in spite of the divisions among the Christian people. "In spite of" probably hits some people the wrong way, because I think a lot of times, "ecumenical dialogue" means, "let's get together and celebrate all that we agree on," instead of what it is, which is dialogue concerning the matters of revealed truth, with the express purpose of reaching agreement in that truth.

Then again, this is one of the reasons that I don't like debate that much, because I don't enjoy telling people that I love that they are completely wrong, and that their wrongness could have dire eternal consequences. There is a large part of me that is a hippie, who just hopes that all the historic talk of sin, judgment, and wrath--not to mention heresy and schism--will just be wrapped up in a big ball of hugs from the Trinity. I'd like to be a universalist, but I am not.

This is a tough balance to strike, because I have no desire to compel anyone against conscience to believe anything, to say nothing of more odious forms of coercion.

I am still the person who must find the truth, and when I have found it, I must proclaim it. My own sense of who I have been is of a man who has been compelled to speak the truth, when groups of people content themselves knowingly with error, or flagrant lies.

Among those of us who either aren't certain about the truth of things revealed in Christ, or whose certainty is diminished by the divisions among those who claim Christ, our first obligation is or was to lament our divisions, not to celebrate them as legitimate diversities. That may seem counterintuitive, but if salvation is a matter of eternal life or death, then certainty about something is required. There is no obligation in doubt; there is only obligation in knowledge. As a consequence, those who claim uncertainty as a means to deal with the reality of Christian division should be regarded as fools, not as people who are wise and magnanimous.

So, what is true, and how do I know? To me, this is the most important twofold question in all of religion.

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