The Internet has made it possible for every person to have channels of significant influence at their fingertips, regardless of credibility or content. This can be used for good or for bad. And in the case of Cedarville University, we have the bad. I was supposed to speak at Cedarville University in Ohio. At the last minute they cancelled, the VP's job was threatened, all kinds of ugliness. A small group of people have used an impersonal, indirect means of communication to try and tear down something they disagree with. Unfortunately Cedarville gave validity to this group of bloggers by reacting to their demands … and as we all know, dissension spreads like fire -- or yeast, as Jesus said.

A university must believe its students are able to "test the spirits" and work out their salvation "with fear and trembling." We are not talking about junior high kids, but young adults who are capable of discerning truth from fiction, and who need to be trusted with and exposed to diverse perspectives.

If there is anything I've learned from both conservatives and liberals, it's that we can have all the "right" answers and still be mean. And when you're mean, it's hard for people to listen to, much less desire, your truth.

We have nothing to fear from people who disagree with us. Folks who see things differently from us are our best teachers.

I would love to have a conversation with these folks who disagree with me. I have often said that one of our great witnesses to the rest of society is how well we can disagree. In fact, I offered to use the honorarium Cedarville promised to fly in the angry bloggers so we can have a public conversation. I take all criticism very seriously. I will prayerfully listen to every critique and concern that is expressed directly to me. My address is on our Web site (thesimpleway.org). And I respond personally to every one, usually with an invitation to have dinner together (hmmm, I can feel the surge of "angry" letters from folks looking for a free meal, haha!).

Unfortunately it's difficult to communicate with folks who will not talk to you, who only talk around you, as in this case. I do not have time to hunt down every rogue Web site. There's too much constructive work to do for the Kingdom for us to spend our energies constantly reacting to every destructive voice, especially those who do not honor Matthew's admonition to speak directly with one another in love (Matthew 18). And there is too much brokenness in the world to spend time tearing each other apart.

I am excited to say that these bloggers do not represent the majority of Christians -- who want to see evangelism and social justice kiss, and who know that what we believe must affect the way in which we live. This is evidenced by the surge of energy from other local communities and congregations who contacted us immediately after the cancellation with hopes of hosting the evening. We have worked carefully and respectfully with Cedarville University and the many folks in the area to organize an event on Monday night, autonomous of the university. It will be an evening of sharing worship and prayer hosted by Apex Community in Dayton.

So while I am disappointed that the institution itself at Cedarville was not secure enough to stand up to these vigilante voices, I am deeply encouraged by the faith and courage of the students, local residents, and members of the faculty and administration who have not allowed this minority voice to hijack goodness. I pray that our time together on Monday will move all of us closer to Jesus and to the Kingdom of God. It would also be nice if an angry blogger or two showed up so we can have communion together.

Shane Claiborne is the author of Jesus for President, a Red Letter Christian, and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

During the South Carolina Republican debate, Mike Huckabee garnered greatest applause when defending his views of wifely submission as part of his evangelical faith. The questioner quizzed Huckabee about being one of 131 signers of a 1998 USA Today ad by the Southern Baptist Convention that asserted, "a wife is to graciously submit herself to the servant leadership of her husband." Huckabee responded by saying "I am not the least bit ashamed of my faith." He joked that his own wife was not submissive and appeared to temper his original statement by affirming the idea of mutual submission in marriage (a view, by the way, specifically rejected by the Southern Baptist Convention).

Some evangelicals might find this acceptable, but many more do not—not to mention the American public as a whole. Over the last decade, the Pew Research Center has tracked a steady decrease of the impact of conservative religion on views of gender. In 1997, 28 percent of Americans strongly disagreed with the idea that women should return to "traditional roles." In 2007, 42 percent strongly disagreed with the same statement. One wonders how many Protestant Christians—evangelical and otherwise—are included in that 42 percent.

If the media thinks that Huckabee's views represent evangelical Christianity, they are wrong. Wifely submission is only one interpretation of scripture and not without significant criticism by biblical scholars and theologians. American evangelicalism has a long and conflicted record about its views of women, with egalitarianism as the alternative to submission. This week's other major news story—Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire primary victory—provides an instructive historical lesson about that evangelical alternative.

Hillary Clinton is not, of course, an "evangelical" using the current definition. She is a mainline United Methodist. However, she graduated Wellesley College. Although few would think of contemporary Wellesley as in any way evangelical, the school's 19th century heritage was that of evangelical feminism.

Henry and Pauline Durant founded Wellesley in 1871 (first classes held in 1875) as a distinctly evangelical institution. Henry, a wealthy lawyer, had become a lay-evangelist with a vision for a women's college that "will be Christian in its influence, discipline, and course of instruction." At the groundbreaking of Wellesley's first building, Mrs. Durant gave every workman a Bible as a gift before she placed another Bible in the cornerstone. The cornerstone prayer reads:

This building is humbly dedicated to our Heavenly Father with the hope and prayer that He may always be first in everything ... that His word may be faithfully taught here; and that He will use it as a means of leading precious souls to the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of Wellesley's early professors were required to teach the Bible along with their regular subjects; all trustees were obligated to be active members of evangelical churches. Revivalist Dwight L. Moody served as a trustee and ardently supported the school and his friends, the Durants, in their endeavor.

The Durants not only preached the gospel—they were equally committed to the "cause of God's poor." They believed that universal childhood education was the key to alleviating poverty and that medical care needed to be widely available to the indigent. The Wellesley evangelicals believed that women were as capable as men in every field, with one exception: religious matters. When it came to religion, they believed that women were superior to men. In 1880, Noah Porter, Yale College president, addressed Wellesley women praising that superiority while warning them that such giftedness exposed them to "unreasoning fanaticism and tenacious bigotry."

Wellesley women took this all quite seriously. Submitting to no one, these young evangelical women became scholars, professors, theologians, pastors, missionaries, teachers, doctors, and lawyers across the globe. Although the Wellesley of Hillary Rodham Clinton's day had become secularized, the feminist legacy of 19th century evangelicalism continued to influence its priorities—full equality for women, quality childhood education for all, universal access to health care, and a passion for the poor.

Diana Butler Bass (www.dianabutlerbass.com) holds a Ph.D. in American Religious History from Duke University. She is the author of six books, including Christianity for the Rest of Us (Harper One 2006).

Two days after my blog post about the University of St. Thomas' controversial decision to bar Archbishop Desmond Tutu from a speaking engagement on campus, a letter was sent to students, faculty, and staff on behalf of university president Father Dennis Dease. Not only did Dease reverse the decision, but he also personally and publicly apologized:

One of the strengths of a university is the opportunity that it provides to speak freely and to be open to other points of view on a wide variety of issues. And, I might add, to change our minds…. I have wrestled with what is the right thing to do in this situation, and I have concluded that I made the wrong decision earlier this year not to invite the archbishop. Although well-intentioned, I did not have all of the facts and points of view, but now I do.

I believe Father Dease's words come from the heart, and I commend him for doing the right thing. Words are powerful, whether we use them to express our beliefs or voice our dissent. For example, Jewish Voice for Peace organized nationwide to send 2,700 letters in protest of the university's initial decision. Eighteen law school faculty members wrote a letter asking Tutu to be invited again, and St. Thomas' Students for Justice and Peace coordinated students and staff to take action. Social justice organizing work can be isolating, tedious, and frustrating without measurable results. But in cases like this, where the action is clear and the message is unified, our efforts can lead to victory.

Allison Johnson is the policy and organizing assistant for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.