I Stand Tall

Note: To listen to Dr. Piper's blogs on KWON/KYFM radio go to http://www.bartlesvilleradio.com/pages/ideas-matter. If you would like a copy of Piper's new book "Why I Am a 'Liberal' and Other Conservative Ideas" go to amazon.com or to whyiamaliberal.com

 

After I challenged the temerity of Al Gore this past week, for suggesting that our current blizzard and frigid temperatures are yet more evidence of global warming, I received a note of reprimand from a pastor. He said that he found my snarky comments insulting. He went further and suggested that somehow I as a conservative must be afraid of scientific research. He implied that I was running the risk of embarrassing my church and my college with such an uneducated and closed-minded critique.

 

Well, I do agree with one thing. There is questionable education and a closed-minded, quasi-scientific critique in play here and indeed it is insulting.

 

The irony, however, is that it is the conservative who is begging for empirical analysis and open inquiry.

 

It is the conservative who questions the logic of ignoring pertinent data.

 

It is the conservative who wants all ideas on the table.

 

It's the conservative who wants to have a robust debate.

 

It's the conservative who trusts the truth will win regardless of where it leads.

 

I want unencumbered breadth and depth of discussion and I want all sides to have unfettered freedom to dissent and disagree.

 

You see, conservatives don't fall into the fallacious, ad populum, disjointed, deceptive thinking of saying hot is cold and cold is hot in spite of a ton of evidence to the contrary.

 

My response to my pastor friend is this: Thoughtful Christians must confront the mushy anti-intellectualism of our day. If we don't confront the deceptions of those in seats of power, we will find ourselves oppressed by those deceptions and those people.

 

Silence in the face of poor logic and politically correct intimidation does no one any favors.

 

In this context OKWU can stand tall.