Brooks is the closest thing to a Third Way thinker we have in modern American politics. He rejects the worst of both extremes of the political spectrum (blind faith in the individual on the right and in the government on the left), while embracing the best each side has to offer (a healthy skepticism about making major changes to social institutions on the right, a recognition that certain tasks require collective action on the left).

Welcome to Asheville! We have awesome weather reserved just for you this weekend . I hope you enjoy your visit – make sure you get up on the Blue Ridge Parkway today and drink some coffee at the Dripolator. Will y’all be visiting any of the local churches on Sunday?

Scot,
Never thought I’d see the day when indie-folk musician Sufjan Steven’s picture would make it on your blog. (He’s the “hipster” you posted.) Now if you would give his “Come on Feel the Illinoise
” CD a listen and review, that would really be something!

I’m always surprised when fellow pastors exalt the apparent benefits to social networking in the context of ministry, but not the negatives. I’ve refrained from blogging, twitter, status updates of any kind because it detracts from my pastoral calling. Certainly, I’m not saying that if its a detriment to me it must be to others also. But pastoral responsibility is daunting and it shocks me that fellow pastors feel the need to constantly tell people where they are drinking coffee or when they’re taking their kids swimming. Honestly, I can’t justify worrying about status updates when I have widows home alone, marriages falling apart and a pastoral staff needing encouragement and support to keep pressing on.
Again, I’m not saying these things don’t have a place, but I’m more than happy to challenge this growing sentiment that status updates on twitter are ministry.

Scot,
Thanks for the great link to the article on Rush. Nice to hear some balance — same for Brooks. I have great respect for him. May his tribe increase. I wonder if a third party will eventually emerge that is not Ralph Nader or Ross Perot? Certainly, they (whoever “they” are) should begin organizing now…they have a lot of work to do!

Scot,
I hope you have a very good spring break. We love North Carolina. What a beautiful part of the country! We have very good memories of time spent in Asheville.

I actually thought the connection between the term “hipster” and the Sufjan photo was veeeerrryyy loose. I’m a Sufjan fan, and after combing Scot’s post several times for clues, I was still like, “What?”

Yes, that seminary looks excellent to me.
I do appreciate the way President Obama does seem to want and be willing to think outside the box. I’m afraid that his own party is going to bring him more grief than the loyal opposition. I do appreciate David Brooks, and think much of what he says is possibly a viable third way. Though I don’t think Brooks is where most of us are at on the abortion issue; he believes in choice. But even there he might have some good thoughts for better policies, in fact I’d be surprised if he didn’t.