The Times meets the Evangelicals

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 14, 2005

It isn't often that Evangelical Christian scholars are quoted in a piece that appears on the front page of the Sunday New York Times Week in Review section. What did they do to command that attention?

Oh. They said the Bible is ambiguous about abortion.

Talk to Evangelicals at random, and you'll find very little evidence of ambiguity. But there is some. The Times has found 2-- wait, wait, no! maybe 3!-- Evangelical professors who think things are more complicated.

We shouldn't be too quick to say this is tendentious reporting. The Times, as an institution, probably has a better understanding of Mayan archeology than of the American Evangelical movement. It's only natural that their reporters would come into contact with those Evangelicals who share their own interests and views-- in much the same way that in his new home in Iceland, Bobby Fischer is probably best acquainted with the people in his neighborhood who play world-class chess.