The man on the plus sign

Q&A | To engage the culture, say Eric Metaxas and Richard Land, Christians must deliver the 'whole gospel' to a people who are 'wildly ignorant' of it | Marvin Olasky

James Allen Walker for WORLD

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the rare U.S. senator who was also a thinker, once said, "The central conservative truth is that it is culture not politics that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."

Conservatives have the better of that argument, but both fall short of the central Christian understanding, which is that only Christ saves us from ourselves, and that neither culture nor politics is of any help apart from God's grace.

I recently moderated at The King's College in New York a discussion between two thoughtful Christians that encompassed many topics, but particularly the importance of culture. Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988, hosts two national radio shows, and is a fan of Woody Allen. Eric Metaxas, founder and host of Manhattan's Socrates in the City ("Mission to Metropolis," Feb. 14), has written two biographies, 30 children's books, and humor articles that Woody Allen called "quite funny."