{"id":5106,"date":"2011-12-06T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T02:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=5106"},"modified":"2011-12-06T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T02:09:10","slug":"an-open-letter-to-rachel-held-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2011\/12\/06\/an-open-letter-to-rachel-held-evans\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to Rachel Held Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Dear Rachel Held Evans,<\/p>\n

I have noted with righteous worry and sanctified dismay your disrespect for one of our cherished Christian institutions.<\/p>\n

I refer, of course, to your recent criticisms of the Pious Online Open Letter. I had hoped that you would come to see the error of your ways so that I would not be forced to write this, but I see from this post<\/a>, and then this one<\/a>, that you have not repented. And so it grieves me deeply to have to write these words.<\/p>\n

Your recent open letter of gratitude to Scot McKnight<\/a> makes a mockery of the form. Gratitude? Heartfelt appreciation?<\/em> That\u2019s a perversion of this sacred tradition and it breaks my holy heart to see you stumble in this way.<\/p>\n

Such sentiments of admiration, thanks and goodwill are not what Pious Online Open Letters are for.<\/em> These letters exist so that we can make a show of our own piety, feigning reluctance and dismay while seething with passive-aggressive hostility and indulging in an intoxicating self-righteousness. Just as God intended.<\/p>\n

By first criticizing and now undermining this time-honored practice, you degrade the very institution of the Pious Online Open Letter. It\u2019s a slippery slope from there to the horrifying prospect of us Christians having to communicate directly<\/em> through personal correspondence or even \u2014 heaven forfend \u2014 conversation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have tried such forms of communication and I assure you they are no substitute for a POOL. It\u2019s very difficult to be nearly as tendentious, pretentious and disingenuous when communicating directly. And what would even be the point<\/em> of such communication when there\u2019s no larger audience? If I write someone a private, personal letter, who then would witness my extravagant exhibition of condescending lamentation?<\/p>\n

Why, if more Christians were led astray by your advice and example, such ostentatious performances of self-congratulatory holiness might disappear entirely. And then<\/em> where would we be?<\/p>\n

Again, it saddens me to have been compelled to write this letter, but with deep sadness and a heavy heart, I realized I had no choice. Please remember, as the book of Proverbs reminds us, \u201cthe kisses of an enemy are deceitful, but faithful are the wounds of a fellow believer trying to drum up Web-traffic through pompous displays of sanctimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

In deepest humility and flamboyantly holy sadness,<\/p>\n

Fred Clark<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Rachel Held Evans, I have noted with righteous worry and sanctified dismay your disrespect for one of our cherished Christian institutions. I refer, of course, to your recent criticisms of the Pious Online Open Letter. I had hoped that you would come to see the error of your ways so that I would not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAn open letter to Rachel Held Evans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dear Rachel Held Evans, I have noted with righteous worry and sanctified dismay your disrespect for one of our cherished Christian institutions. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"An open letter to Rachel Held Evans","description":"Dear Rachel Held Evans, I have noted with righteous worry and sanctified dismay your disrespect for one of our cherished Christian institutions. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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