Day 1 of the National Pastors Convention was delightful, both because the volunteers manning the information both were so kind and helpful throughout the day, and also because my interview with prolific author Phyllis Tickle was so much fun. We talked mostly about her upcoming book, The Great Emergence. I’ll detail our conversation in a separate post.
Scot McKnight and Phyllis were together when I arrived for the interview and Scot greeted me so warmly, I felt like we were old friends—which we are in the warp speed of cyber-space. Scot and Phyllis were part of a panel discussion last night along with Andy Crouch and Tony Jones called “Emerging Critical Issues Facing the Church: Religious Pluralism, the Role of Scripture, Homosexuality and Political Involvement.” Only half the topics were covered: the Bible and political involvement; the other two will be addressed this morning. The discussion on the role of Scripture was interesting; the other one less so. I confess I went mostly to hear Andy Crouch interact with the other authors. He was a favorite columnist of mine for CT and I suspected his would be a voice with which I would agree. I really can’t say much about this session because in a funny bit of irony for the emerging crowd, we were asked not to blog about it. I’ll keep my opinion to myself on this one.
This morning I’ll be attending the second half of Dan Kimball’s talk on why young people love Jesus, but not the church. I have an interview scheduled with Dan this afternoon … an interview that was confirmed only yesterday.
I’m going to give myself away here as a newbie Anglican by saying that other than Kimball, the authors with whom I’ve requested interviews are all prominent Anglicans.
Well, that’s all I have time for this morning, except to say that spring is blooming here in SoCal. The bursts of color lining the highway mid-winter are one of the things that sells a person on this place … and then, after living here a while, you realize that more foliage will eventually mean more brush to burn when the winter rains are long gone. I’m sure I could find a metaphor in there, but I’ll pass on it. The blooms are beautiful while they last. The dry brush is too in its own way.
Not to blog about it? What?
Yes, well, exactly L.L.
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Ironically, T.Jones, who asked that people not blog about it… did.
Phi,
Were you there? I don’t recall that it was Tony who made the request. He may have commented, but the initial request was made by the moderator.
Tony, Scot and Out of Ur blogged the session, which is fine. I’m a rule follower generally and I was a guest at the convention, so I kind of think respecting the host’s wishes is good manners.
I’m mostly interested in knowing why the request was made. Were “traditional journalists” also asked not to write or speak of their experience in the session?
It was just a statement thrown out there, and not the first time I’ve heard something like it lately. At a couple scholarly lectures I’ve heard similar requests. I ignored one of them as it was a completely public lecture. In this instance, I think it was the combination of content and audience, perhaps enhanced by the presence of at least two journalists and at least one speaker’s provocative style.
I think everyone is trying to figure out the new reality. However, the solution is simple: Don’t make public statements that you don’t want reported. Of course James had something to say about our ability to control the guilty member. Some of us will inevitably get ourselves into more trouble than others.