The Pietist Schoolman

10/12/12 – Thanks to my recent CFH co-panelist Jared Burkholder for publishing a three-part interview with David Swartz, on his important new history of the “evangelical left,” Moral Minority. Here’s a taste from part one: Swartz explained that, for evangelical readers like myself, he wrote the book “to offer a sense of context. Just about everyone, folks on the right and the left, seem so certain that they’re correct, that there’s a direct line from the Bible to the ballot box. But everyone comes to faith and political commitments out of a particular history. Given different historical and cultural circumstances, we could have very different views about poverty, war, capital punishment, and gender roles. This ought to inculcate a profound sense of humility—and hopefully an instinct to conduct more civil discussions.”