Missing in Action

Near where I live there is an excellent four-year Christian college. There is also a well known seminary, and hundreds of churches, some quite large. Also where I live there is a newspaper with a circulation of probably about 25,000 subscribers. Occasionally on the editorial page debates will erupt about some Christian topic. Letters are published on both sides of the issue for weeks until the editor gets sick of the topic and shuts it off.

All well and good.

But what I don't understand is why I almost never see a letter from a pastor of one of our hundreds of churches, or from an instructor at the Christian college, or from a professor at the seminary. Presumably they know more about Christianity than the average Joe on the street. Yet they remain remarkably silent. Why?

Maybe they do write but don't reveal their qualifications, though it seems odd not to when that could lend such authority to their words. Maybe they don't read newspapers. Maybe they feel it's beneath their dignity to get down in the dirt and wrestle.

Whatever it is, it's disappointing. Isn't Christianity worth defending in the marketplace? These are opportunities to reach 25,000 people with a single letter and they can't be bothered? How many sermons or classroom lectures reach that many people?