Is it possible to have a discussion about serious moral and political topics without it devolving into a partisan shouting match? Writer and blogger James Watkins has been seeking the Holy Grail of serious-but-civil dialogue for years through his columns, speaking engagements, and blogging.

Watkins’ daily blog talks about just about everything you can imagine, from the humorous to the deadly serious. But rather than shouting angry opinions from a soapbox, he prefers to step back and weigh both sides of any given debate, always from a Christian point of view. And he usually finds a way to inject some good-natured humor into even the most divisive topics. For some examples, see his posts on the same-sex marriage controversy, the US presidential race, and the Jeremiah Wright controversy. He also contributes to our own ThinkChristian blog, which explores the intersection of faith and culture.

So if you’re a bit tired of the Culture War and the bitter debates it sparks even between Christians, take a look at what Watkins is saying—it might prompt you to look at the Big Issues of the day from a more balanced, and even Christlike, perspective!

If you’ve seen the Gospel.com homepage this week, you know that our focus this week is on God and politics. Is there any aspect of public life (save perhaps religion) that can energize, outrage, and divide like good old politics can?

Nobody will argue that politics isn’t divisive, and that the political arena doesn’t get vicious and unpleasant these days. But as tempting as it might be to divorce ourselves from these day-to-day political debates and candidates and votes and scandals, this isn’t a subject that Christians can ignore. Politics is an integral part of living in our society today, and if Christians are called to reflect the light of Christ into every part of our lives, that means we’re called to behave politically in a way that honors God.

And so this week, we’ll be featuring a few ministries and other resources that talk about how Christians ought to engage politics. We aren’t taking sides, and we’re not telling you how to vote—we just want to encourage you to think about government, political parties, presidential candidates, and the voting booth as a Christ-follower, not just a citizen.

We’ll begin by noting a blog—one that’s actually not precisely about politics, but which focuses on an institution that in the eyes of many Christians is is inextricably intertwined with the Culture Wars. The blog is GetReligion, and the always-controversial subject it covers is the portrayal of religion in the media. GetReligion doesn’t just sit back and complain about the media—it looks at how Christianity is discussed in the public sphere and how that discussion might improve.

Contributors like Terry Mattingly, Douglas LeBlanc, Daniel Pulliam, and others offer detailed analyses of how journalists talk about Christianity and religion—and since religion is front-and-center in a lot of political discussions these days, various political and public-square topics crop up a lot. See recent posts that talk about media coverage of the California marriage ruling, sex scandals in the church, and the religion in the US presidential race. And if you’re hungry for yet more, GetReligion contributor Terry Mattingly writes the weekly “On Religion” column, which addresses many similar issues in a slightly different format.

Take some time to explore GetReligion (and perhaps add it to your RSS reader), and tune in tomorrow for more politics!

There are a lot of blogs within the Gospel.com community—and they’re posting a lot of great content each week. We thought it might be useful to do a short roundup at the end of each week pointing to the best and most interesting posts that have cropped up around the community. So without further ado, here’s what the bloggers in our community are talking about this week:

• David at the Internet Ministry Conference blog wants to know: how do you do ministry online? Do you have a web site? Do you interact with people in chat rooms or within Second Life? Whatever it is that you do, head over and share on the IMC blog.
• The recent ruling in California on same-sex marriage has a lot of people talking. James Watkins shares some thoughts on the topic. And GetReligion has a typically thorough analysis of the issue and the media coverage it’s generated.
• The ESV Bible Blog points out a nifty way to turn the Bible references on your website into Bible Gateway links. They also mention a Wordpress plugin that does something similar with the ESV version of the Bible.
• At Strangely Dim, Lisa Rieck talks about the challenge of keeping in touch with the world.
• It’s annual performance review time at Behind the Books.
• Do you take the Bible literally? Addenda & Errata talks about that touchy question, and offers a nice illustration that explains the difficulty many Christians have answering with a straight “yes” or “no.”
• The ThinkChristian gang has been talking about the recently-released “Evangelical Manifesto,” and is running a poll asking you what you think of the Manifesto.
• The Outflow shares some musings on the will of God.

That’s it for today—and that should be plenty of weekend reading for you. If any of these posts catches your interest, be sure to explore further. There’s a lot more where these posts came from!