The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.
Dwight L. Moody, founder of the Moody Church, the Moody Bible Institute, and the Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts
America faces a myriad of challenges today – they are deep, and they are troubling. Were this not the case, we would not be talking about writing a new Constitution. But it is our intention to look forward, not back. To build, not to dismantle. To hold up a light, rather than curse the darkness.
Therefore, in all we say, we endeavor to be the “straight stick” – and hope that this in itself will illustrate what is wrong with the “crooked stick”. In places it will be necessary to point out the shortcomings of an existing institution or law – but we will do so only as needed to clarify the advantages of a proposed alternative. We pledge never to criticize anything without suggesting a better way.