Awwww, man--I wish I'd written this. Not only is this broad spot-on, she even managed to work Dostoevsky into it!

I heartily endorse this event or product, but it certainly raises a lot of frustrating questions about how Christians should conduct themselves in the public square. Congregants asked Boyd such things as, "Isn’t abortion an evil that Christians should prevent? Are you saying Christians should not join the military? How can Christians possibly have “power under” Osama bin Laden? Didn’t the church play an enormously positive role in the civil rights movement?" How do Christians fight evil, real EVIL, without defining themselves as finger-waving moralizers or knee-jerk Republicans?

The question of how to respond to terrorism reminds me of the dilemmas faced by Christians living in the time of Nazism. I know Corrie ten Boom and her family did the morally right thing in hiding Jews and helping to operate the Dutch Underground. But did Dietrich Bonhoeffer do the right thing in conspiring to assassinate Hitler? To put it in a present-day context, we can be sure it's a virtuous act for a Christian to do humanitarian work in Iraq; but can we say it's also virtuous for a Christian to kill our enemies (those who want to kill us) in Iraq? For that matter, let's take the foreign policy context away and ask whether it's equally virtuous to minister to a mass murderer in prison and to execute that same mass murderer.

At the root of these dilemmas is a key tension of Christian theology: justice and mercy. In God, these virtues are complete, complementary, and noncompetitive. In a sinful world, though, we find that they do at times compete. Corrie ten Boom's forgiving one of the guards who tormented her and her sister was astonishingly merciful, but was it just? A successful plot to assassinate Hitler would've been just, but would it have been merciful? I think that thoughtful Christians could offer several valid and varying answers to these questions.

So, how about we Christians just let each other have different opinions on political and theological questions, and focus on the thing that unites us: the cross. That is, after all, where justice and mercy meet.

You don't have to tell me--I know I suck! I had a really nice string of consistent updates there for a bit, and it all just stopped abruptly with my birthday post. I've been desperately trying to think of something interesting to say, but no dice. I blame Brant Hansen. He's all in Africa and stuff, leaving me without material to steal. So, how about Yahoo! News?

Don't kill Harry!

I'm not sure what to think about all the people asking Rowling about this. What, she's gonna say one way or the other?

I'm thinking it probably happens, though, but in a redemptive context. She won't spare him for sentimental reasons, that I'm sure of--but I don't think the world she has created is dark enough for a complete victory of evil.

If she does kill him off, it's gonna suck. :(