{"id":5018,"date":"2018-02-07T14:52:49","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T18:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=5018"},"modified":"2018-02-07T14:52:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T18:52:49","slug":"craven-surrender-of-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=5018","title":{"rendered":"Craven Surrender of Ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>George Weigel&#8217;s recent essay, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2018\/02\/men-without-conviction-churches-without-people\">Men Without Conviction, Churches Without People<\/a>,&#8221; deserves reading. Here is the heart of his thesis:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #4d4e4e;\">The radical secularization that has transformed Christianity\u2019s heartland into the most religiously arid half-continent on the planet has at least as much to do with the <strong>craven surrender of ministers of the gospel<\/strong> to theological and political fads, and their consequent loss of faith, as it does with the impact of urbanization, mass education, and the industrial revolution on Europeans\u2019 understanding of themselves. [emphasis added]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the recent examples he gives of ministers disavowing belief in central gospel truths. Disbelief and capitulation are in abundant supply. What is needed, what will be striking, what many are looking for, is bold, winsome proclamation of truth with conviction and charity.<\/p>\n<p>Let us be about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Weigel&#8217;s recent essay, &#8220;Men Without Conviction, Churches Without People,&#8221; deserves reading. Here is the heart of his thesis: The radical secularization that has transformed Christianity\u2019s heartland into the most religiously arid half-continent on the planet has at least as much to do with the craven surrender of ministers of the gospel to theological and &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=5018\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Craven Surrender of Ministers&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5019,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions\/5019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}