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comment by lm
lm  ·  2781 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What became of the Christian intellectuals?

    Not sure exactly what you mean by this.

The article talks about this--basically, the shift from mainstream US culture containing writing/music/art from people who are Christian to the development of Christian publishing houses, bands, movies, etc.

    most crucially, arguments about what marriage should be

I can see this; my parents' church harps on about divorce rates and has excommunicated at least one person for 'living in sin', which did somehow involve divorce...

In addition, a lot of people find that being feminist and being pro-life, or being feminist and opposing divorce, are mutually exclusive and thus it would be easy for anyone wanting to hold the latter positions (pro-life, anti-divorce) to be forced out of the liberal cultural conversation. Once that happens, I suppose most people end up feeling more welcome amongst traditionalist/conservative groups, and that slight selective pressure compounds over the years into the weird social mess we have today.

(I'm not sure what my point is here other than trying to understand how Christianity got to where it is.)





user-inactivated  ·  2781 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    In addition, a lot of people find that being feminist and being pro-life, or being feminist and opposing divorce, are mutually exclusive and thus it would be easy for anyone wanting to hold the latter positions (pro-life, anti-divorce) to be forced out of the liberal cultural conversation. Once that happens, I suppose most people end up feeling more welcome amongst traditionalist/conservative groups, and that slight selective pressure compounds over the years into the weird social mess we have today.

Sort of, yeah. And the parable of Richard John Neuhaus illustrates that intelligent Christians had to choose -- buy into liberal orthodoxy regarding abortion, etc, (even while disagreeing completely with subcamps, e.g., atheists) or lose their voice entirely.

That combined with other important factors is probably the answer behind the decline referenced in the title.

user-inactivated  ·  2781 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Alasdair MacIntyre gets a lot of respect in pretty much every circle that knows who he is, though he never tried to address a popular audience. Alisdair MacIntyre has things to say worth listening to even if you don't share his religion.

user-inactivated  ·  2781 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Good point, I forgot about After Virtue.