Re: [asa] Manhattan Declaration

Just to clarify, I was not suggesting that I thought Ron Sider (best known
as the leader of Evangelicals for Social Action) would not be in agreement
with the pro-life positions expressed in the statement. It was just jarring
to me to see his name in the midst of a list that seemed to me to be
dominated by names like Dobson and Falwell on the "religious right," as
Sider pretty consistently opposes that wing of the so-called culture wars.
It would appear that Sider is more willing than many (maybe more than me) to
reach "across the aisle" and join in common causes with people to whom he
might be diametrically opposed on many other issues, without fearing "guilt
by association". And that is probably a commendable approach.
Allan
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Ted Davis" <tdavis@messiah.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 6:22 PM
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; <steamdoc@q.com>
Subject: Re: [asa] Manhattan Declaration

>>>> Allan Harvey <steamdoc@q.com> 11/25/09 5:31 PM >>> wrote quite a bit
>>>> about this topic, and I will respond here to just a single phrase:
>
> I don't know what Ron Sider is doing on there
>
> ***
>
> Allan, obviously I can't speak for Ron Sider. I can say however that he
> is perhaps the most prominent Brethren In Christ theologian; Messiah is a
> BIC college; he's been our commencement speaker; at one point I even was
> academic adviser to one of his children. In short, I'm pretty familiar
> with his views, and I'm not the least bit surprised that he signed it.
> Ron has for a long time advanced the view that Christians ought to be what
> he calls "consistently pro-life," by which he means opposition to the
> death penalty, to abortion on demand, to warfare (Ron is a pacifist, just
> as Messiah is a pacifist college) and to government policies that he
> regards as oppressive to the poor. Insofar as this statement is
> consistent with his well-known views on those issues, I'm not the least
> bit surprised that he signed it.
 

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Received on Wed Nov 25 20:45:27 2009