Letter in Christianity Today

Some bloke called Ronan James, a Mormon from Baltimore, Maryland, has a letter published in this month's Christianity Today magazine. I think Mr. James and I are the same person, but lately I've been blacking out then waking up in the middle of the night butt-naked with mud on my feet, so who knows? Anyway, Mr. James was responding to CT's news piece on the Zacharias/Mouw event at the Salt Lake tabernacle. They gave a lot of space to Evangelicals decrying Mouw's conciliatory remarks as unhelpful in their efforts to missionize Mormons. Mr. James felt that CT should know that the opposite was probably true, that being nice to Mormons was more likely to result in Mormons listening to the Evangelical message. Anyway, here's the letter (no online link I'm afraid): What Mormons want "Your news report (CT January 2005) about Ravi Zacharias's preaching at the Mormon Tabernacle failed to suggest any possible benefits for Evangelicals. Instead you invoke images of "Paul at the Areopagus" and focus on Evangelical criticism of the conciliatory comments that Richard Mouw made to Mormons. Evangelicals interested in witnessing to Mormons need to realize that people like Mouw are far more likely to succeed than scurrilous films like the Godmakers, or those who resurrect some 19th century sermon by Brigham Young and insist that it represents current LDS belief. Had Mormons in Salt Lake expected Zacharias to preach to them of the evils of Mormonism, or the special place in hell reserved for Joseph Smith, they would not have let him near the Tabernacle. Instead, because of people like Mouw, Mormons (and I am one of them) are happy to listen to what Evangelicals have to say." Well done, Ronan James, well done!