I’m your moderator, Henry Neufeld, owner of Energion Publications. It’s worthwhile noting that I’m not a neutral party; I just play one on the internet for this roundtable!
I was thinking of moving away from the economy, but considering that others seem to have different priorities than I do I’m going to stick with it for the moment. I struggled with a way to create this question so that a ~1,000 word answer would be reasonable.
What are the most critical elements of an economic plan for the United States, and how should they be balanced? For example, consider deficit reduction, managing the size of government, creating jobs, maintaining social services, maintaining military strength, supporting current overseas military operations, reducing spending, and increasing taxes. Which candidate has a plan closest to what you prefer?
If anyone has time, consider mentioning your candidates for Senate and the House. How do they stack up on this issue?
My expectation is that you will trim this question according to your priorities, as I realize I’ve left enough options to generate a book, but any more limited question might put the entire topic into territory that one or another of you regard as irrelevant. So trim what you prefer.
I want to encourage people to send me questions. I will see them if they are posted as comments on this post, or e-mailed to pubs@energion.com using subject “Roundtable.”
I have also added a general landing page for the roundtable: The Great Energion Political Roundtable. This post will contain links to all the question and answer posts so you can track back through what people have said.
Let me also remind everyone that anyone can participate. Just add a link to your post in a comment to the question or answer posts for the appropriate question.
Author: empower
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The Great Energion Political Rountable – Question 4
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The Great Energion Political Roundtable
Now that we have things moving with the roundtable, we need a central location where people can find links to everything involved. So this is that post.
1. What is the roundtable?
It’s a blog discussing between four Energion authors and one of our blog reviewers regarding politics, leading up to the U. S. presidential election, November 6, 2012. Each week, I will post a question here on Energion.net. The participants will write their responses and publish them between Monday and Wednesday. They can then interact as they wish.
Everyone is welcome to participate through comments, tweets, or your own blog posts. If you post answers to the questions on your blog, please track back, or provide a link in the comments. I will keep up with linking the main participants, but I won’t be able to keep up with everyone who may post on the roundtable.
2. Who are the participants?- Bob Cornwall
Bob Cornwall is author of Energion titles Faith in the Public Square, Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer, and Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide - Elgin Hushbeck, Jr.
Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. is author of Energion titles Preserving Democracy, Christianity and Secularism, and Evidence for the Bible - Allan R. Bevere
Allan Bevere is author of Energion titles The Politics of Witness and The Character of Our Discontent, and co-editor of the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues Series - Arthur Sido
Arthur Sido is a prolific blogger and a participant in our blogger review program. - Joel Watts
Joel Watts is co-editor of the forthcoming Energion title From Fear to Faith: Essays on Crisis, Transition and Conversion, which is not yet in our catalog.
The participants are balanced between left and right politically and all participants are Christians. It includes Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It should provide us with a variety of responses to read, examine, and discuss.
Here are links to the questions and answers. This section will be expanded as the roundtable continues.
Question 1 / Question 1 Answers
Question 2 / Question 2 Answers
Question 3 / Question 3 Answers
Question 4 / Question 4 Answers
Question 5 / Question 5 Answers
Question 6 / Question 6 Answers
Question 7 / Question 7 Answers
Question 8 / Question 8 Answers
Moderator:
Finally, I am the one who frames the questions and keeps up with the various answers. I’m Henry Neufeld, owner/editor of Energion Publications. - Bob Cornwall
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Question 3 Answers
The answers to Question #3 are starting to roll in. As I get the links, I will add them to this post.
Arthur Sido – Eliminate the Capital Gains Tax
Bob Cornwall – Is the Capital Gains Tax Fair and Just? — Energion Political Roundable
Joel Watts – Energion Roundtable Capital Gains Tax
Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. Roundtable Question 3: Capital Gains Taxes -
The Great Energion Political Debate Becomes a Roundtable
We will be continuing this week with The Great Energion Political DebateRoundtable. Participants in the roundtable are:
Bob CornwallElgin Hushbeck, Jr.Allan R. BevereArthur SidoJoel Watts
I had some trouble creating our next question. It’s on taxes, but I wanted to ask something about taxation that would get our participants’ more general take on the topic, but yet be narrow enough to permit an answer in ~1000 words. Here’s what I came up with:
Should the capital gains tax be changed (raised, lowered, eliminated)? In very general terms, how would this relate to your general view of tax policy?
Remember that you can comment here or on the individual blogs, though I recommend the latter.
(Image credit: clker.com)
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The Great Energion Political Debate – Answers to Question 2
As I thought likely, one thing that will separate our participants is the choice of which issues are of most importance.
Elgin Hushbeck’s answer: The Big Three
Bob Cornwall’s answer: 3 issues: Income disparity; Immigration; Health Care. Hard choices.
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The Great Energion Political Debate – Question 2
I’m going to continue with a question that will allow both authors to introduce themselves and their overall views. Next week, I’ll be getting very specific. Please feel free to send me questions you think should be asked. You can comment on this post or email pubs@energion.com.
Here’s the question:
What are the three most important issues a voter should consider this year in choosing a candidate to vote for at the federal level (President, Senate, House of Representatives)? Why are these issues critical?
I will suggest that the authors feel free to make some adjustments. For example, can one successfully draw a boundary after just three issues? How are the issues ranked among themselves? But each author has only about 1,000 words in which to respond, so I don’t want to overload the question.
Remember to check out our authors, Bob Cornwall and Elgin Hushbeck and their books, Faith in the Public Square and Preserving Democracy.
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Election Online Debate – First Answers
Both Bob and Elgin have posted their responses to the first question:
Bob Cornwall: How does faith inform your political decisions?
Elgin Hushbeck: Faith Politics and the Election
If you join in by posting on your own blog, post your link in a comment here or e-mail it to pubs@energion.com.
Both writers also took the opportunity to comment on the vice-presidential selection:
Elgin Hushbeck: Paul Ryan
Bob Cornwall: The Teams Are Set: Let the Political Games Begin
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Energion Authors on the Election – First Question
The breaking news this morning is that Mitt Romney has selected Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. That’s the sort of breaking news this type of extended debate is not really equipped to keep up with. I’m sure the blogs will be filled with commentary today. If either of our participating authors blog on that, I’ll link to it from here, but we won’t have an immediate question on running mates.
Our introductory question is:
How does your faith inform your decisions during this election season, including both thinking and actions leading up to the election (involvement, etc) and your vote?
Your participants are Elgin Hushbeck, Jr., author of Preserving Democracy, who blogs at Elgin Hushbeck: Politics and Religion, and Bob Cornwall, author of Faith in the Public Square, who blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey.
Links
Bob Cornwall has posted on the vice-presidential selection. -
Two Energion Authors Examine the U. S. Election
SPECIAL SALE OFFER!
Remember that our political titles are on sale until the election, including both Preserving Democracy and Faith in the Public Square.
Energion authors Robert D. Cornwall (a progressive) and Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. (a conservative) will be engaging in a blog discussion about issues related to the election.
Elgin is author of Energion title Preserving Democracy along with Evidence for the Bible and Christianity and Secularism. Bob is author of Faith in the Public Square along with Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide and Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer.
So how will this discussion work?
Each Saturday, beginning August 11, Energion owner Henry Neufeld will post a question for the coming week here on Energion.net. By Wednesday of the following week, both authors will post an answer to that question on their blogs. They will then each have an opportunity to respond to the other’s post. As a rule, they will be writing just one blog response to the other’s answer. I will post links to each entry here on Energion.net.
If you’re interested in a serious discussion of the issues, you can also publicize this discussion via your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media.
This being the blogosphere, you’re naturally wondering how you can get involved. We couldn’t keep you away if we wanted to, and we don’t. Feel free to respond to the question on your own. You can post a link to your post in the comments or you can e-mail us the URL and I will link to you here as well.
You can comment on Elgin’s or Bob’s blogs or right here at Energion.net. Each blogger is fully responsible for moderating comments on his own blogs. Under the rules of Energion.net you can also post comments here.
Watch here for the first question to be posted on August 11. -
Energion Authors React to the Health Care Ruling
— Henry Neufeld, Energion Publications owner.
For the election season here in the U. S. A. we have put our political titles on sale. Look for savings in the neighborhood of 30% on four titles, Preserving Democracy, Faith in the Public Square, Christian Archy, and The Politics of Witness. (Note: To get the sale price, follow the link to Energion Direct.)
All of the authors of these books have responded in some way to the decision by the supreme court. The differences in viewpoint illustrate the Energion approach to publication. They come from different points of view.
Elgin Hushbeck, Jr., author of Preserving Democracy, looks primarily at the constitutional aspects, rather than on the particular impact of the law in his post The Roberts Legacy.
Robert D. Cornwall, author of Faith in the Public Square, looks more at the impact of the law itself and to our duty as Christians in his post Health Care Reform, The Court, and Jesus!
Allan R. Bevere, author of The Politics of Witness, launches a three part series regarding the way in which Christians interact with politics. The first installment is Some Reflections on Health Care, Judicial Philosophy, and the Witness of the Church – Part I.
David Alan Black, author of Christian Archy, made a few comments and linked to another post. Because his blog doesn’t permit linking to individual articles, we link the copy of this item on The Jesus Paradigm.
Finally, I wrote something myself, not really about the health care decision, but it does reference it. So here’s my short story, Can Either of You Recommend a Church?