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Evangelist Critiques Peers (Reprint from the June 6, 2004 edition of the Press-Enterprise)
(Editor's Note: As we move more deeply into the election year cycle, some commentators have suggested that the Republican Party appeals more to evangelical, conservative Christians and the Democratic Party, more to secular humanists and the irreligious. This simplistic analysis fails to take account of the changes in the evangelical movement over the last few years, particularly overseas. The following article points to that). Christians are called to change the world - to make peace, to be merciful and to help the poor, the Rev. Tony Campolo, a leading evangelical preacher, told Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda on Saturday. "There is a lot of rottenness in the world, but there is a lot of goodness… we can change things." In an interview after the morning service, Campolo said evangelicalism now is a movement that comes across as pro-war, anti-gay and anti-feminist. "That raises serious questions about how far we have strayed from what Jesus is all about. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. We're war-makers. Jesus calls us to be merciful. We're in favor of capital punishment. Jesus calls us to give to the poor. We're not doing it." Evangelical Christians have become one of the greatest barriers to peace in the world, he said. "As President Bush has tried to negotiate a settlement in the Middle East… evangelical Zionists are calling for ethnic cleansing, which is absolute evil, " Campolo said. "The Bible promises Israel to the seed of Abraham. Palestinians also are the seed of Abraham." Too many evangelicals are confusing patriotism with religion, he said. "When the American flag replaces Jesus on the cross, something is wrong with Christianity," he said. "Jesus is not an American. Right now, I think we believe that he is. He is not. He transcends us." In the 1920's and 1930's, evangelicals rebelled against social activism on the part of mainline denominations that minimized the need for salvation, Gary Edmonds, secretary-general of the World Evangelical Alliance said. "Evangelicals said there is such a thing as sin, spiritual death, separation from God, regeneration, newness of life that can only come about through faith in Jesus Christ by God's grace. The evangelical side would clearly say there needs to be personal faith and personal salvation. But social compassion is not to be treated exclusively. It's to be held hand in hand so it would be an affirmation of evangelism." For the last quarter-century, evangelical Christians outside the United States have come to view their faith as a statement also of justice, concern for the poor and economic sufficiency. "The church is a transformational institution in society." Campolo urged church members to live as Jesus did. "You say, 'I don't live like Jesus,'" he said. "I say,'no, but it's about time you did… I call upon you to be inwardly transformed… and be people who change the world into what it ought to be.'"
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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