On Being Blog

Richard Mouw: A Twitterscript with an Evangelical Leader on Civility

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

This coming week we will be releasing our latest show, which focuses on the topic of incivility in political, religious, and civic culture with one of the leading Evangelical Christian leaders in the United States today. On September 8, 2010, Krista interviewed Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and a professor of Christian philosophy and ethics, which we live-tweeted (@softweets) from behind the glass of Studio P at Minnesota Public Radio. Here’s a compilation, our Twitterscript if you will, of all those tiny nuggets, and a few exchanges with our followers:

Tweeting Krista Tippett’s interview on civility with @richardmouw
Wed Sep 8 14:11:57 2010
“The antichrist has changed across my lifetime…in the 1980s it shifted towards Islam” - @richardmouw
Wed Sep 8 14:12:47 2010
On civility, @RichardMouw quotes the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah: “Seek the shalom of the city in which God has placed you.”
Wed Sep 8 14:18:06 2010
“What does it mean for me to honor the Muslim..the Mormon..the people of unbelief who are hostile towards Christianity?” - @richardmouw
Wed Sep 8 14:18:22 2010
“What I owe to my mother and friends, I also owe to the stranger. And that’s more than toleration.” -@richardmouw on going beyond tolerance
Wed Sep 8 14:19:11 2010
“Evangelicalism goes back + forth between alienation to a takeover mentality - but alternate between two theologies.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 14:26:32 2010
“I do think Jesus is a model of civility - of convicted civility.” -@RichardMouw, president of Fuller Seminary
Wed Sep 8 14:32:48 2010
“For starters concentrate on your own sinfulness and the other person’s humanness.” Evangelical leader @richardmouw on gentle Christianity
Wed Sep 8 14:32:55 2010
“Glenn Beck + anti-Islam have revived the Evangelical sense that they’re taking something away and we need to get it back.” - @richardmouw
Wed Sep 8 14:36:42 2010
“It’s very important for a leader to approach people having a hard time controlling their fears.” -@RichardMouw on conservatives’ concerns
Wed Sep 8 14:42:13 2010
@mindywithrow You’re welcome! It’s tough keeping up. in reply to mindywithrow
Wed Sep 8 14:42:52 2010
“We have to be careful that we not sin in the process of acting on those concerns.” @richardmouw on “Glenn Beck followers’” moral concerns
Wed Sep 8 14:45:42 2010
“We’re not messiahs. And God isn’t going to hold us responsible for righting all the wrongs in the world.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 14:48:27 2010
“Instead of telling Mormons what they believe, asking them what they believe.” @richardmouw on a “gentle” approach w/ those we disagree with
Wed Sep 8 14:51:19 2010
“GK Chesterton once said, ‘It’s bad to have false gods. But it’s also bad to have false devils.’” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 14:52:44 2010
“Seeing other people is a kind of exercise in art appreciation.” - @richardmouw on the realization that all people are a work of art
Wed Sep 8 14:53:02 2010
“Even in expressing our differences we’re dealing with people that are precious works of divine art” @richardmouw
Wed Sep 8 14:57:41 2010
“One of my stories about learning in civility was going to a gay Mass at an Episcopal church.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 14:58:38 2010
“I’m gratified by a growing Christian subculture of the more conservative side that are willing to think some new thoughts.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:04:05 2010
“There’s a common life. There’s something that bonds human beings together that politics can’t create and shouldn’t destroy.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:07:58 2010
RT @expatminister: ah yes, the oft-quoted Jeremiah 29. Much more complex, much harder than “I know the plans…” bumper sticker. Good tho…
Wed Sep 8 15:09:57 2010
“I think more and more we’re committed to bringing people in (@FullerATS)… It’s important to create these kinds of spaces.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:11:51 2010
“We need safe places. The problem is that there aren’t safe places any more.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:13:21 2010
“If more people who have influence and leadership positions can give their blessing to this [civility] and encourage this…” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:19:56 2010
“In many ways, we are living in a world that’s much like some of the best years in Christianity in the past.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:23:50 2010
“We have to bracket those kinds of [social] issues and live with more mystery on that.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:26:29 2010
“We need to see He [Jesus] calls us to go out to identify with the things he cares about.” -@RichardMouw
Wed Sep 8 15:31:00 2010
And that concludes our live-tweeting of Krista’s interview with evangelical leader @RichardMouw. Thanks for reading!
Wed Sep 8 15:32:35 2010