This is a good week to discuss the lasting and important proposal of Os Guinness in his new book, The Case for Civility. He advocates instead of a “naked” public square (no religion) or a “sacred” public square (coercion of religion) a…

Cosmopolitan and
Civil public square.
Evangelicalism, within limits of the freedom of a faith, can learn from this book. And it can learn a valuable lesson for a day when we are fast losing our civility.
A cosmopolitan and civil public square…
1. Is one in which everyone, regardless of faith, are equally free to engage in public life on the basis of their faith.
2. This is a matter of “free exercise.”
3. It needs to be dictated by reason and conscience.
4. Within the framework of the Constitution
5. And an agreed upon covenant of rights, responsibilities and respect.
What we have now is not the rhetoric of persuasion but the rhetoric of “protest, pronouncement, and proclamation.”
A cosmopolitan and civil public square is competitive; it is not for wimps.
Guinness worries over the lack of a leader who can speak for our country today.