From reason to rhetoric

“Because of the mindlessness of our culture, people do not persuade others of their views (religious or otherwise) on the basis of argument and reason, but rather, by expressing emotional rhetoric and politically correct buzzwords. Reason has given way to rhetoric, evidence to emotion, substance to slogan, the speechwriter to the makeup man.”

In Love Your God with All Your Mind, reviewed on p. 21, J.P. Moreland observes and assesses what happens when Christians substitute “the mindlessness of culture” for Paul’s injunction, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2).

Until late Friday night, commissioners to the Charlotte Assembly honored God with their minds through careful thinking and respectful debate. Then, exhausted and manipulated, they succumbed to the temptation to substitute rhetoric for reason. We understand how it happened.

We pray that others will learn from the experience.

The Presbyterian Layman, July/August 1998 contents

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