Advocacy for the empty chair is an act of love I hope to see become common practice on the forums.
The Empty Chair is a symbol of those who could join our conversation, but have been excluded by our lack of hospitality, or even intentional exclusion ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/europe/11nobel.html?pagewanted=all ). Right now, in this conversation, there are large parts of the Church that could be in the conversation. We could invite them to join us, even though they are different. However, after so much time of opposing them, they are not going to join the conversation unless we advocate on their behalf to make this a safe place first.
Instead of advocating for our own theological agendas, as is the norm, I hope we can turn to advocating for the empty chair. In this way, let us welcome the full diversity of the Church into an accurate account of science. We will still have our disagreements in theology, but we can come to be defined by our love for one another instead.
On this, too, I wanted to invite comment from some key people at BioLogos that share similar views: @TedDavis, @JeffSchloss, @DarrelFalk, @benmc, @praveens, @Sy_Garte, @Jon_Garvey, @AntoineSuarez, @Antoine_Suarez . We have a real opportunity for rapprochement here. Let us not be on the wrong side by opposing a bid for peace.
http://www.taps.org/globalassets/our-stories/2009/15-4-chair.jpg
