[I]f you see no use for gentleness, respect, and hope, then nothing anyone could say will make a difference.
As I though I made clear, I have hope. I show respect for those who have earned it. My sense of gentleness is greatly tested of late and I see no reason for indulging in supine indulgence for the sake of comity.
As a country, we are currently in a fight for the very heart of what it means to be America and Americans. I do not think that it is time to indulge in a false meekness to prove something to others about the reality of our Christian faith. On the contrary, I believe that we must speak out as forcefully as possible on the rightness of our position, and not be caught up in a cycle of false humility. I say this with all the due clauses concerning the contingency of all judgments and the limited nature of all human endeavors. Simply because I accept these as truisms does not mean that I have nowhere to stand. On the contrary, I stand upon the history of Christians who ahve gone before me who refused to back down in the face of challenges to the faith, and upon the Constitution of the United States that currently lies in tatters at the feet of the Bush Administration. I believe it is long past time to indulge in acquiescence to others. Gentle I most assuredly am, but I am also conceited, and self-assured, enough to insist that I am right and that now is the time for action. Should you believe otherwise, that is all well and good, but, again, I have no deisre to deal with those who insist I live their lives to be able to call myself a Christian.
