Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost takes on Andrew Sullivan. Those who are familiar with Joe Carter know him to be a highly effective evangelical apologist. He is forthright, focused on scripture and is a proponent of Pope John Paul’s culture of life. He has a lot in common with orthodox Catholics and conservative politicians. He is witty, educated and tolerates a lively and contentious combox debate, seldom seen in the blogsphere. I disagree with him a lot and agree with him a lot, but all his posts either focus my own thoughts or are just hilarious.
To no ones’ surprise, he has some fundamental disagreements with Andrew Sullivan.
To begin, he makes what I would have assumed to be an unremarkable observation. He is about to administer some harsh and strongly worded fraternal correction and therefore describes Andrew Sullivan as “a brother in Christ.”
Surprisingly, this creates an uproar in the comments. Joe correctly points out that all fellow Christians are brothers in Christ and that does not mean that he endorses Sullivan's personal life or theological beliefs. Commenters still object that Sullivan is unrepentant. Apparently so, but Joe points out he is not forecasting whether Sullivan will ultimately be among the saved ( a Protestant blog, remember?) Joe leaves that matter to Sullivan and God.
Joe is right. Fellow Christians are "our brotheres and sisters in Christ." That means that Jerry Falwell, Ronert Sugenis and Tim La Fave are my brothers in Christ. A painful thought, but Joe’s right. I often overlook that, and to all my brothers and sisters in Christ—I apologize for frequently forgetting.
Joe not only lives up to Christian virtues, but also demonstrates the broad application of the motto of his organization for many years, “Semper Fidelis.” It’s nice to see a Christian be “always faithful.”