Here is a very good review of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport : Making Connections in Today’s World.
I started this post this way: We know we were saved by God’s grace alone, that nothing we did caused God to choose us, so why can’t we be more loving and gracious with believers, unbelievers and each other? But then I realized that maybe it’s because knowledge puffs up. I think it’s related to what Professor Poythress said about having to experience knowledge or it can make us puffy (this is a paraphrase). Maybe since Calvinism is so deep, it takes us a long time to process it, that’s why the first year of a baby Calvinist is the most dangerous. I think we should lock them up and make them read Calvin and 1 Corinthians 13 over and over again until they realize what “love is not arrogant or rude” means.
Before this last month, I probably would have disagreed with this:

“I must also say up front that it isn’t just in our conversations with unbelievers that I find many Calvinists lacking in gentleness and respect. I find these qualities missing in Calvinists’ interactions with other Christians. Indeed, Calvinists are often not very gentle and respectful when debating fine points of doctrine with fellow Calvinists.”

But during this last month I have been reading what Reformed bloggers are writing about other Reformed men and especially women, and then I started doing it myself. Now, I totally agree that we aren’t nice to each other — we can be very vicious in our outrage. I have repented of it and have resolved not to engage in it anymore. I started this blog so that I could be a source of encouragement and to demonstrate what it meant to be a Christian to a lost and dying world. I was not accomplishing my goal, I hope to be able to do so now.
I think I’ll put this book on my summer reading list, but until then I think I’ll read Calvin and 1 Corinthians 13. I may not be a baby Calvinist, but I certainly am a teenager Calvinist and that may even be worse 🙂