Does the Christian gospel have to be watered down to make it attractive to people in this secular age? Do Christians have to sand off the sharp edges of biblical truth to make truth palatable?

A lot of folks seem to think so. Several Christian publications I glanced through last week, for example, featured the theme of evangelism-but never once mentioned the issue of sin. That's like running a hospital and refusing to acknowledge that infection exists.

If you've got any travel plans that take you through the spectacular new Denver International Airport, consider adding a couple of days to your schedule just to get through the huge facility and on to your final destination.

The congressional furor over federal minimum wage laws prompted me last week to take a brief trip up and down Tunnel Road in our home town of Asheville, N.C. I wanted to discover just how relevant all this debate really was.

When more than 100 Christian leaders gathered next door to Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., for three days last week-at least in some measure to reflect on the apparent failure of the Christian gospel to have much effect in contemporary American society-one option was repeatedly rejected. At the meeting, that option was referred to several times as "the political temptation."

Three more letters in the last few days-all from friends with solid evangelical roots and credentials-have warned me of what they see as lurking danger for WORLD magazine and its editorial direction. All my correspondents had slightly different bones to pick, but a common theme is that WORLD is too cranky-that we tend too much to polarize rather than to find common ground. One fellow summarized the criticism when he said: "Why can't WORLD admit that for the most part in America we're simply having debates over the issues-not a war?"

Having spent the last 50 years as a student, a teacher, an administrator, and a board member in a variety of schools at all levels, I can tell you that I have yet to meet a professional educator who will stand up and say unambiguously: "We're here not to educate but to indoctrinate your child."