In the January 20 issue of the Leadership Weekly newsletter (from the editors of Leadership Journal), Ben Patterson writes, "Few issues portend so much for the future of the church, because none carries so much potential to fly in the face of the spirit of the age. I speak of the infatuation with pluralism and inclusivism and certain brands of multiculturalism; the belief in the egalitarianism of opinions and feelings — that it is not only wrong, but rude and bigoted to this that some people's ideas and feelings may not be as good or as valid as others. It's the "Who's to Say?" syndrome: Who's to say what is right? The answer is everyone, or no one, or both. Whatever. It's cool. "Faithful stewards of the household of God must practice the discipline of saying both yes and no. It's hard, it's not fun, and it doesn't usually preach to packed houses. But believers in every age have had to learn it or lose the faith. It wasn't enough for Nicea to say that Christ was begotten of the Father. It had to say, 'begotten, not made.' It wasn't enough for the signers of the Barmen Declaration to declare that Christ was Lord; they had to add that Hitler was not. "Without declaring the no, we become the church that Machen observed in his day: 'conservative in an ignorant, non-polemic, sweetness-and-light kind of way, which is just meat for the wolves.' "Saying no is part of the nature of our faith, a faith that Alan Watts, the Anglican-turned-Hindu, found to be 'a contentious faith . . . uncompromising, ornery, militant, rigorous, imperious, and invincibly self-righteous.' So be it. But its narrowness is the narrowness of the birth canal, or of a path between two precipices-or of a lifetime spent loving one woman."