EDITORIAL
Let's Do More of This

Michael A. King

T here is much, I think and hope, to celebrate in this issue of DreamSeeker Magazine, as it ranges across heartfelt worry about global warming, what the Good Samaritan might (or not) look like today, and a host of other parables, poems, and columns.

But what I want to highlight is that this DSM includes the most complex set of articles published so far.

As authors Bruce Hiebert and Willard Swartley discuss Swartley’s book Homosexuality, their scholarship is evident. When editing Swartley I pondered, for example, how to handle his reference to Second Isaiah,which reflects the conclusion of many biblical scholars that the book of Isaiah was written by more than one person. I tried adding "(Second)" to Isaiah in a not entirely satisfactory effort to alert puzzled readers that Swartley is referring to a part of Isaiah.

And this fertility theology thing. What was with that? I couldn’t say I’d ever really worried about this before.

So should DSM, I wondered, be publishing material perhaps more at home in academic journals? I finally concluded that it should, at least in this case, for several reasons:

First, though the articles may be a stretch for the many among us who are not scholars, they point to the value of such scholarship. Here two well-trained, passionate thinkers wrestle in the context of a pressing issue with how to read the Bible’s message to the church today. Here we see how those who study both the Bible and contemporary life can help us grasp why this ancient book deserves still to shape our lives today.

Second, I would like to see DSM even more involved in publishing responsible yet diverse understandings of pressing issues. What convinces me DSM should publish on the explosive topic of homosexuality is not that either author has the one right view. Rather, what I value is that they manage to do what seems rarely to happen in discussions of this matter: Even as they sometimes talk past the other, against the other, or over our heads, they also each actually take the other seriously, respect and maybe even learn from the other.

Third, watching them tussle with each other’s perspectives on this polarizing subject makes me dream of what could happen if this were how Christians worked at engaging each other whenever we disagree.

Hence my invitation to you readers and authors: Let’s do more of this! Write your passionate views. Submit the articles that make us take notice because you care so much about the insight that has pulled you into the writing. Pound out the letters! Respond with sharp critique and incisive wit—even as you show that you know your view is not God’s only truth and you have something yet to learn from your opponent. Help fill these pages with life like that, and let’s see how much of the dream we can fulfill.

—Michael A. King