This one is from Christian Post, along with this interview.

On the 7th anniversary of the Iraq War, a Truth Commission will investigate moral conscience in war at The Riverside Church, where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "Beyond Vietnam" speech.

Five veterans - including two who just returned from visiting the countries where they fought - will reveal what they felt, witnessed, and came to understand about fighting in war. They will be joined by a group of experts, including nationally recognized scholars and clergy. Press release is below and at Website.

WHO:
Testifiers Include:

Tyler Boudreau, former US Marine Captain, Iraq War veteran, and author of Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine.

Joshua Casteel, former US Army Interrogator at Abu Ghraib, attended West Point, featured in the documentary, Soldiers of Conscience.

Jacob C. Diliberto, OEF and OIF US Marine veteran, Founder of Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan, M.Div. Fuller Theological Seminary. Recently returned from trip to Afghanistan as a civilian.

Logan Mehl-Laituri, US Army veteran with service in Iraq during OIF II, and co-founder of Centurion's Guild. Recently returned from trip to Iraq as a civilian.

Camilo Mejia, US Army veteran and first service member to publicly refuse to return to Iraq, author of Road from Ar Ramadi, featured in the documentary, Soldiers of Conscience.

Plus eight experts, including:

Dr. Jonathan Shay, VA clinical psychiatrist, national PTSD expert, Macarthur "Genius" winner, and author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America.

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, and author of War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.

Chaplain Herman Keizer, Jr., Colonel, U. S. Army (retired), Vietnam veteran with 34 years of military service, and former chair of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces America.

WHAT: Truth Commission on Conscience in War brings together veterans and over 80 national religious, academic, and advocacy leaders to honor and protect freedom of conscience in the military. It features testimony from recent veterans and national experts on moral, psychological, and legal dimensions of conscience and war.

The event is free and open to the public.

WHEN: Sunday, March 21, 2010, 4:00-8:00 p.m.

WHERE: The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Dr., New York, NY

The Truth Commission on Conscience in War is co-sponsored by a diverse coalition of over 50 religious, academic, advocacy and veterans groups.

The March 21st public hearing will launch the Commission's eight-month campaign to bring national attention to decisions of moral and religious conscience facing American service members, culminating with the Veterans Day release of the Commission's Final Report.

For details, including a complete list of testifiers and commissioners (including bios), and co-sponsors, visit www.conscienceinwar.org.

The Commission is organized by Faith Voices for the Common Good, Luna Productions, The Mission and Social Justice Commission of The Riverside Church, Starr King School for the Ministry, and Union Theological Seminary.

Here's a two-minute video introducing the event. If you're a media professional, please be sure this event gets the attention it deserves ...

I really enjoyed reading McKnight's review of ANKOC and your response. I think its the kind of debate that we see so little of in Christianity today; opposite viewpoints which are nonetheless capable of engaging each other with civility. What struck me about McKnight's review is he goes back to orthodoxy as the focal point for evangelicalism. Fair enough, but there's something I've always found strange about the evangelical emphasis on orthodoxy as a fixed truth throughout the ages. Obviously, evangelicalism is itself an offshoot of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500's. The Reformation wasn't just about problems with the Catholic Church, but about a new way of understanding our relationship with God. Luther's true radicalism wasn't his break with the Catholic Church but his revolutionary teachings about grace and our relationship with God. When evangelicals talk about "a personal relationship with Jesus" they owe this to the spirit of revolution and upheaval of the Reformation. The Reformation shook the orthodoxy of the previous 1400 years in the same kind of way the "emerging" church is currently doing. So it strikes me that evangelicals can't talk about a consistent orthodoxy, because what Christians consider "orthodox" is always changing and evolving, and they themselves are a part of that.

I just wanted to say a big thanks for A Generous Orthodoxy, Everything Must Change, and A New Kind of Christianity (the three books you have written which I own and have read). Thanks for being brave enough and passionate enough to stand in the face of criticism, cynicism, and all sorts of opposition and writing and teaching and inviting into conversation as you do. I appreciate it immensely and always find your work full of grace, life and hope. I don't agree with everything you write about but I certainly don't disagree with everything you write.

Without a shadow of a doubt the issues you raise are indeed issues that need serious conversation. Having grown up in a Pentecostal environment (which to me is praxis heavy but theologically light) many of these issues have never been discussed. As the answer to these questions ground praxis though the conversations are essential although not easy at times, welcome, or appreciated. Thanks for getting the conversation started for us though.

If you have time to answer one question I'd appreciate it. Living in NZ I am not terribly familiar with Reformed churches. It seems to me though that the two sides of most arguments going on (involving the 'emergent' church) in the 'blogosphere' are between the Reformed thinkers on one side and Emergent thinkers on the other. Most everyone else seems to kind of sit in the middle. Is this simplified conclusion accurate? Not really the case at all? Only true in some cases?

Great question. Here in the US, the term Reformed covers a wide span of understandings - from people who appreciate Karl Barth to people who can't stand him, from people who believe wholeheartedly in five-point double-predestinarian Calvinism to people who don't but who emphasize the Lordship of Christ over all areas of life, from the "Truly Reformed" who hold strictly to traditional formulations to the always-reforming who see the need to question those formulations at times. To complicate matters, there are also Reformed Pentecostals, so categories overlap. Many on the conservative end of the Reformed spectrum tend to critical of the work my friends and I are involved in, as they often are of Pentecostalism. More moderate and progressive Reformed folk are active and engaged conversation partners.

I'm encouraged to see dialogue among folks in the emergent conversation and Pentecostals ... which Tony Jones has been blogging about for several days, most recently here. Worth checking out! Also worth checking out - Sam Lee's blog.

A lot of friends are asking how I'm dealing with this kind of whiplash. I tell them I'd hate to have one kind of response - whether negative or positive - without the other, because either way it would be dangerous for the soul. But handling them both together has its own challenges too.

One of the keys to survival for me is solitude ... having time to be alone with God, to escape from the swirl of human praise and blame and seek to still and quiet my soul in the presence of God. Sometimes that solitude comes on an airplane, of all places, or sitting in an airport. Far better when it comes walking along a beach or along a trail under trees. This morning it has come in a few quiet hours reading, and soon, in going to church. Of course it will be great to experience fellowship and be among friends, but these days, it's the quietness and stillness, the slowness and intentionality of public worship that means more to me than anything. In the presence of God, we can rise to a higher perspective, see things from a new altitude and in a new light, rest in God's gracious and holy presence, and so the soul is restored. Whatever you're going through, may that be your experience today.

My friend Tony Jones recently posted about his experience at a recent gathering of Pentecostal theologians.

And another friend, Samuel Lee, shares his unique insider perspective on the movement in a recent blog post ... For those who are critical of Pentecostalism whether as insiders or outsiders, listen to Sam Lee. If voices like his gain a hearing, the movement will be even more vibrant in its second century than it was in its first.

Mike Clawson's last installment of our interview is available here. I'll reply to a follow-up question about Plato and Aristotle after the jump.

The Jazztheologian offers an interview about the book here, and here.

Bishop Alan Wilson from England reviews the book here.

Nic Paton from South Africa focuses on the issue of "the fall."

More after the jump ...