Sunday, February 6, 2011: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
It was not Paul's worldly status and gifts that resulted in Corinthian faithfulness, but his weakness.
Recently representatives of Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker asked me to assist with the Governor's Inaugural Prayer Breakfast in Madison. Walker, a young, dynamic conservative Republican and Christian evangelical who is the son of a Baptist minister, was swept into office last November in the anti-incumbent tidal wave that hit most of the nation. Wisconsin became one of several states to flip from blue to bright red overnight.
Walker's religious and ideological pedigree made his request seem odd if not downright shocking. The Wisconsin Council of Churches, which I direct, represents a broad swath of our state's mainline Protestant and Orthodox communions. There is nary a conservative evangelical among us; furthermore, it's no secret that the council has been at odds with Republican leaders in the statehouse on a number of issues through the years.
I'm not sure why the governor-elect's staff called me. Maybe the Wisconsin Council of Churches was the choice of last resort, after others had turned Walker down. Perhaps we had some measure of statewide credibility and represented the kind of breadth and depth he wanted reflected in his Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. I gave his staff the benefit of the doubt; I agreed to help.
