The Hewitt & Koukl Show...

Update: Greg Koukl posted on the Thursday night event at Stand to Reason's blog (also, Melinda "The Enforcer" Penner wrote a bit regarding the term Emergent and differentiated between its use by both progressive Evangelical and PoMo churches). STR has an MP3 of the event, including both talks by Hugh and Greg. I've added a link to a short (14 second) MP3 clip of Hugh referencing me in his talk. ********************** Just returned from a Stand to Reason event at Calvary Church in Santa Ana, California. Hugh Hewitt was the guest speaker, with Greg Koukl closing the evening with a short talk and a status report on Stand to Reason. In his talk, Hugh emphasized the need for Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews to come together as a force to oppose the threat to moral values that our culture now faces (e.g., religious liberty, judicial power-grabbing, the sanctity of human life). He even included Mormons as our allies, noting that while our theological differences are very real, we still share a common enemy (likening the fight to that of allying with the Soviet Union in order to defeat the Nazis). While he pointed out that Christians do not need to drop their concerns of theological (and creedal) differences, we do need to understand that forming a coalition based on shared values will better enable us to protect religious liberty. Three core issues he stressed were: 1) God exists, 2) He demands obedience and, 3) He punishes disobedience. He also gave four, "must-read," book recommendations: 1) That Hideous Strength - C. S. Lewis, 2) The Abolition of Man - C. S. Lewis, 3) Lost in the Cosmos - Walker Percy and, 4) The Thanatos Syndrome - Walker Percy. I've read Lewis' books but have yet to delve into Percy's. Before the talk I had the chance to speak with Hugh and was mildly chastized for scaling back my posting frequency (see my original post on that topic here and an addendum here). Hugh basically said that, in the medium of blogs, having many short posts outweighs having but a few, extensive posts. Well, I'll see what I can do. In our short conversation I related the time committment I have towards my family, especially with regards to the home schooling of our two children, and was pleasantly stunned when Hugh mentioned me by name, as a homeschooler, towards the end of his talk. Thanks Hugh! Greg Koukl rounded off the night by bringing an especially lucid talk on the threat of relativism to the church. He highlighted the dangers the church faces when it embraces such notions as moral relativism as well as post modernism. In particular, he addressed the teachings of the Emergent Church. For a refresher on how I view the dangers inherent in some of the teachings of the Emergent Church, please refer back to my post What is PoMo? and Those PoFolks at PoMo. It was a very enjoyable evening. Here I am networking with Hugh Hewitt.