We Can Do Better

Reposted here is a letter from Don Lindskoog, a long standing friend of the NWC Philosophy Department, to the Church Herald, a publication of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination with which Northwestern College is affiliated.

(Lest it’s not obvious, the views expressed by the various contributors to Gadflies are not necessarily, and sometimes not even contingently, the views of the RCA.)

July/August 2005

“We Can Do Better”

I was astonished at how harsh the Reformed Church family could be to one of our own, Norman Kansfield (“Guilty as Charged”). Weakness and fear is revealed whenever the culture war erupts in personally destructive skirmishes, even within the church of Jesus Christ. I truly believe we will look back on this as a dark hour in our family history and repent of what we have done.

There is an urgent need for discussion in the RCA, but it should not focus on any particular ethical issue. Instead, the discussion, especially in our seminaries and colleges, should develop a historical/critical biblical hermeneutic that will allow the written Word of God to speak to moral questions in every generation within the context of God’s good news of the kingdom. We have too long allowed Christian pop culture figures to instruct us in their overly simplistic way of interpreting Scripture. We have the talent within our own family to do better than this.

Don Lindskoog

Leesburg, Florida