Dear Guests of SI-ITIS:I want to open what will be a running series on various issues in regard to the pseudo-fundamentalist Sharper Iron (SI) site. First in the skillet is a republication of an online response I had to a note posted by Aaron Blumer (SI site publisher) at my blog partner Kevin Lane’s On My Walk personal blog.
Aaron responded in the thread to an element in Kevin’s article, Why One Is, and One is Not a Dispensationalist in which Aaron cited an article published at SI. Aaron posted the following:
Thanks for stopping by SI. “SharperIron is loosening it’s grip on the truth.”In my commentary to follow I am not taking sides on the issue Aaron raised with Kev’s article. My concern with and response reposted below from the thread was in regard to Aaron’s closing paragraph, which I highlighted in italics.
I think you misunderstand a little here what we’re trying to do at SI. The idea is to offer some differing points of view on various topics to give folks food for thought. It’s not quite accurate to characterize SI as loosing it’s grip on anything when we offer both sides of a question... surely what you see as the “Truth” is in one of them, as you pointed out. In any case, we had quite an interesting discussion going for a while there.
One more thing: SI has always had a fair number of Reformed folks so, actually, all the pro-dispy stuff of late is more of a move toward balance in that direction. -Aaron (site publisher)
Hi Kev:
Enjoyed your participation at my blog this last week. This article, Lordship Salvation: Charles Spurgeon’s Personal Testimony Speaks Against It is still generating commentary. If I may I am going to address Aaron, but this is meant for your consideration as well.
Aaron, you wrote, “The idea (at SI) is to offer some differing points of view on various topics to give folks food for thought…more of a move toward balance in that direction.”
It is way too late for that and IMO likely viewed as a facade of moving “toward balance.”
From its inception SI has been heavily weighted toward the advancement of Calvinism/Reformed Theology, Lordship Salvation, and an increasingly passionate promotion of the stars, practices and fellowships of the so-called “conservative” evangelical camp. Stars such: as John MacArthur, John Piper, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, et al.
Aaron, you wrote, “SI has always had a fair number of Reformed folks… .” “Fair number?” The SI team (moderators and administrators) is nearly 100% Calvinistic. Less than a year ago I asked Joel Tetreau, an SI mod, if he could name one SI moderator or administrator that is NOT a Calvinist. He said there may be one who is not a Calvinist, and named that person.
In any event, SI’s obvious bias toward (and in favor of) Calvinism, Reformed theology and its star personalities in the “conservative” evangelical camp has pretty much rendered it (SI) a home for those who are sympathetic to those doctrines and causes.
SI’s recent incursion into Dispensationalism is (IMO) a bone thrown to a constituency of believers (most of) whom have long since departed the SI scene.
Those who were alienated by four years of SI’s hard lean toward Calvinism, and its stars in the evangelical camp, are not coming back to SI.
LM
