Thursday, December 18, 2008

Hear My Media Appearance:

Jim Babka has uploaded my media appearance on the show he hosted where I discuss the Christian origins of America with Herb Titus. You can listen to it here. You might have to turn the volume WAY up on my first segment (that lasted for a few minutes). Whether I was speaking too softly or the producers didn't have my volume turned up (or both) I don't know. But the volume issue was taken care of after the first few minute segment during the break.

Babka also provided critical feedback on the debate which you can read here.

I know Babka, as an evangelical Christian, disagrees with the view I often explicate on Romans 13. I'm not a Christian or a believer in the infallibility of the Bible so my understanding is more "academic" or "scholarly." But, evangelicals/fundamentalists/orthodox Christians -- devout believers in the Bible as the infallible Word of God -- throughout history and currently today do believe in this understanding that demands something close to unlimited submission to civil authorities. And if this interpretation of Romans 13 is correct, the American Revolution was a sin.

I’m actually must less passionately wedded to the position that Romans 13 teaches unlimited submission to government than I might seem. I tried to make clear I thought the position that, Herb, Jim, and the many Christians throughout history who argued for the right to resist tyrannical magistrates is a “reasonable” interpretation. I just want folks to be aware that what was central to the American Revolution is not so “clearly” biblical but rather a matter of debate within orthodox Christendom.

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