Lunch

The lunch with the colleague was splendid. As I had already discovered, the colleague is a delightful person with a heart for ministry. That he occupies a place further to the right than myself when it comes to issues of church controversy doesn't alter the fact that he cares deeply for people and earnestly wants to do the right thing.

We talked for nearly three hours. He ended up by saying that he could see why a colleague like myself would have been offended by the ad, and that such a concern never entered into the decision to sign it. For my part, I ended up being able to say that I could see, and would defend, my colleague's right to sign it.

The whole thing was a test of the oft repeated maxim that "people of good faith my disagree on non-essential issues."