Our need for pendulums and anchors - this has captivated a good deal of my attention lately.  I'm not thinking here in literal terms, but metaphorically.  Theologically and eccelsiologically, it seems that the pendulum is always swinging. The seemingly "extreme" positions that are inherent in a pendulum-swing are commonly understood to be helpful and even necessary in dislodging us from the opposite extremes.  Such pendulum swings -- although often enigmatic and sometimes even confusing --  are a normal part of life, and when I think about Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 , this is exactly what I see.

    For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
    a time to be born, and a time to die;
    a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
    a time to kill, and a time to heal;
    a time to break down, and a time to build up;
    a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
    a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
    a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
    a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
    a time to seek, and a time to lose;
    a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
    a time to tear, and a time to sew;
    a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
    a time to love, and a time to hate;
    a time for war, and a time for peace.(NRSV)

As the product of Modern Evangelical Christianity, it has increasingly become important for me to face the pendulum extremes we have embraced, and admit the price we have paid for not having sought a greater sense of balance.  In particular, here are some of the pendulum swings we were previously blind to but which evangelicals are increasingly owning up to: