"Radically" Mixed Messages from Findlay (Finley?)

I'll repeat what I've said many, many times here.

I love Lance...and the other guys who have comfy chairs behind big desks in the nice offices of our swanky headquarters building in Findlay, Ohio,...

...and I also like all of them whom I know personally.

Having said that, I'll repeat a message I've also sent out frequently.

Those guys are poor stewards of truth.

I've mentioned Brent Sleasman's current guest article in the eNews in which he, at Lance's invitation, calls on the people of the CGGC to engage in meaningful conversation with people with whom they have disagreements by investing time and creating space to allow genuine communication to take place.

Lance's introduction to the article decries the fact that, today, too often, conversation consists of "two sides talking (or screaming) past one other."

And, as far as that goes, fine.

Let's, indeed, be thoughtful. Let's be people of moderation. Let's be calm. Let's be careful listeners. Let's be patient enough to create conversation that has meaning and significance.

As I pointed out in my eNews blog comment, Jesus knew how to begin a meaningful conversation.

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But, gang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone remember how recently Lance's eNews article entitled, Radical Voices - Radical Lives, suggested that the answer to the CGGC's decay and decline is to be found in our radical past?

Lance actually, dreamingly, asked what has become of radical voices like those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Winebrenner, whom Lance had just described (accurately, by the way) as an anti-war and pro-racial justice radical.

Just that recently (April 6, 2018), Lance was praising Winebrenner saying, "John Winebrenner...was a radical." And lamenting that today, "We don't like radicals."

Lance, in that article, actually criticized the CGGC today because, "We're comfortable with moderate."

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So, which is it?

Are we chagrined that, today, conversation consists of two sides screaming past each other?

Or, do we see our best chance for a bright future being in returning to the radicalism of John Winebrenner who, as a preacher and as the editor of The CHURCH ADVOCATE was a screamer if ever anyone was a screamer...

...and whose radicalism was reflected, in the 1960s, in the radical civil disobediece of Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Trust me: Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't invest time and create space to have meaningful conversation with George Wallace!

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I love and like Lance but...

...since the days when I was creating my list of the 16 Characteristics of the CGGC Brand, I have been pointing out that one of the most serious problems facing our body today is cynicism.

I've always criticized the cynics.

But, I understand the frustration that underlies the cynicism.

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Please understand: This is not pie in the sky stuff. This is not theoretical.

Lance and the other office occupiers in Findlay think of themselves as leaders.

They want to be followed.

If a CGGCer wanted to submit to leadership and, actually, literally, follow Lance and the others, what, on God's green earth, would s/he in real life do?

Be a radical walking in the way of John Winebrenner and Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Or be careful not to shout past people who think differently and take care always to engage in meaningful conversation?

What I do know is that any and every serious CGGC member, living down from the mountaintop, has to be confused.