A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

--- King Solomon

If I were to tell you to listen to this—and I will definitely tell you to listen to this—you might well put your mousepointer over the linktext, look down at your status bar and think to yourself, "Oh, great, not another hieratic lullaby from the Central Sleep Clinic". Thinking that would be a mistake: go and listen.

Listen to all three addresses by Robert Delnay; even if you have a profound religious commitment to halfway measures, then at least listen to the last of the three.

There is a lowering mist, a morbid cloud, hovering among the ruins of fundamentalism, and the reflex of many has been to huddle up and pretend the problem is one of definition: perhaps one more mighty wind from the platform will blow it away. If we suppose that the world has forgotten what a fundamentalist is, then perhaps we can solve the problem with more bafflegab.

What could one more lecture hurt, right?

But if the problem is not just a misunderstanding of fundamentalism or separation, then more lectures will not help. If fundamentalism has lost its good name, then it needs to inquire as to how that happened. If future usefulness is a problem, then saluting the cap one more time is not a solution. And if you've lost your young people, then your day has well and truly ended. You have enjoyed the book so far, the protagonists have been captivating, the plot has been riveting, but as the fingers of your right hand fan through the few remaining pages you begin to suspect that things cannot end well. There is not nearly enough space left for things to end with a bang, and there is barely enough space for things to end with a satisfying whimper.

Those of us who have suggested this was the case have been dismissed as being too conspicuously celebratory. In my case, I don't care. In the case of others, I'll let them find their own words to describe this last, pitiable self-justification.

What you will not do, I guarantee, is dismiss Delnay's thoughts as party chat.

For those of you still dubious or ambivalent about all this last-minute scrambling for identity, bear in mind one thing: Delnay sees no solution in Evangelicalism or Conservative Evangelicalism or Emergence or any other death gurgle within earshot. He is not motivated by anything so small as the loss of the young to Dever, Piper, MacArthur, Mohler.... If what he says about fundamentalism is true, then the solution belongs to those willing to learn from history and act rationally.

Think about what he says. I know the man well enough to know when he is amused and when he is not.

Take it from me; I've seen him much happier.