Political Discussion at CGSA

UPDATE: The final paragraphs were altered in the hopes of creating greater clarity at 3:57 pm on Aug. 22.

I shall be leading a discussion at a CGSA meeting later this summer; my topic will be "Thinking Out Loud," which is about applying our Christian minds in action to the world around us. It is based on the chapter of the same name in the book A Mind For God by James Emery White.

Following White's lead, I have chosen to use political action as the focus of our discussion. Specifically, I shall use the Columbus Mayoral race between incumbent Michael B. Coleman and challenger Bill Todd. To provide fodder for this discussion, I sent a letter to each candidate asking the following questions.

• Why should a thoughtful evangelical Christian graduate student vote for you?
• How do you plan to respond to potentially conflicting desires and opinions from the religions and scientific communities on issues of importance to Columbus?
• Specifically, do you accept the scientific conclusion that anthropogenic global warming is real; in either case, how would you address the issue if you are (re)elected as Mayor?

For reasons that will remain a surprise until the discussion, I am writing to solicit responses from members of CGSA and other interested readers for more specific forms of the second question. Please answer the questions below in a message to me or in a comment on this entry. Answer them as if you were presenting issues to the mayoral candidates; I will use the responses (if I receive any) from the candidates as fodder for our discussion. Please be sure that your answers are relevant to municipal politics rather than solely state or federal politics. I would like your answers before noon on this Friday (Aug. 24).

What areas of conflict do you see between the Christian and scientific communities? If you are not a scientist, what conflicts do you see between Christians and members of your field?