Civility 4<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a "civil screed" against the Religious\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Civility 4\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a "civil screed" against the Religious\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/\",\"name\":\"Civility 4\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a \\\"civil screed\\\" against the Religious\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Civility 4\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Civility 4","description":"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a \"civil screed\" against the Religious","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Civility 4","og_description":"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a \"civil screed\" against the Religious","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/","name":"Civility 4","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-20T05:20:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"(Say the Jesus Creed morning and evening during Lent.) Chp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, could be called a \"civil screed\" against the Religious","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Civility 4"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":4005,"date":"2008-03-20T00:20:40","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T05:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/"},"modified":"2008-03-20T00:20:40","modified_gmt":"2008-03-20T05:20:40","slug":"civility-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/20\/civility-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Civility 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

(Say the Jesus Creed<\/a> morning and evening during Lent.)
\nChp 4 of Os Guinness, The Case for Civility<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em>, could be called a \u201ccivil screed\u201d against the Religious Right. It is not too harsh; it never falls for the uncivil, but the chp univocally calls the RR to the bar for a civil warning.
\nWhat points does Guinness make?
\nHe wants America to draw upon its roots and to discover a renewal, but Guinness knows the problem: a fall of public man (and woman). That is, public discourse has sunk to an all-time low. It has learned to trade in negation and demonization of the opponent.
\nThe Religious Right has fallen for this rhetoric, and it is the target of this kind of rhetoric. \u201cToday\u2019s puritan,\u201d Guinness observes, \u201cis the person who is haunted by the thought that someone somewhere may possibly have breathed up a prayer in the public square\u201d (91).
\nIn the hardest hitting section in this book, and the next chp will hit at the left, Guinness says the Religious Right is its own worst enemy. \u201cI am appalled by the way the RR attacks its fellow believers and demonizes its enemies\u201d (92). \u201cI am angered by organizers of the RR who play the victim card and appeal openly to Christian resentment\u201d (93). Such appeals are \u201cfoolish, ineffectual, and downright anti-Christian\u201d (93).
\n\u201cMany in the RR are more obviously fundamentalists than they are Christians\u201d (94).
\nThe RR has politicized faith.
\nAnd, the RR has consistently exhibited one glaring problem: \u201cIt has never articulated a clear public philosophy, or a common vision for the public good\u201d (102). A journalist once told Guinness: \u201cThe RR talks of justice, but it sounds like \u2018just us'\u201d (103).
\nGuinness sees the RR as the best argument for its opponents, the most powerful factor in its own rejection, and a prime reason for the repudiation of religion in America (103). They are \u201cgenerating the greatest backlash against the Christian faith in American history\u201d (104).
\nSay \u201cno to a sacred public square\u201d is the theme of the chp.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"