Finally, there are those who quietly, unspectacularly have broadened their activism beyond that associated with the religious right. No grassroots shift among millions of people will have one policy position, but there is a kind of family resemblance among "new evangelical" concerns. One is embrace of church-state separation. In , the Evangelical Manifesto , signed by over seventy evangelicals leaders, stated: "We are firmly opposed to the imposition of theocracy on our pluralistic society.
Indeed, this is the second prominent "new evangelical" concern: working towards structural change to extend opportunity to those who have not enjoyed it. This is not simply charity, but the redistribution of opportunity through education, job training, and health care in the United States and abroad. If you give someone a dollar, that's almsgiving; but if you give her education or marketable skills, or if you develop a program to mentor emerging entrepreneurs, you have made a change that will affect not only her but the local economy.
Enough of that and you have accumulating economic change. A third concern of "new evangelicals" is critique of government when it is unjust.
This is the church's "prophetic role" - not to be government but to "speak truth to power. Last month, the National Association of Evangelicals NAE called on its members - some 45, churches - to protest Republican cuts in programs for the needy:. In , our international assistance budget was cut by 11 percent. For , the House of Representatives has recommended a further 30 percent reduction One question I tried to answer in my work was: why a shift away from the religious right now?
One reason is generational, with idealistic younger evangelicals rejecting the politics of their parents. Another is that, since the s, views about sex, the environment and global connectedness have shifted nationwide, including among evangelicals. Still another reason for the present shift is ethical concerns amid a group that takes ethics seriously.
The cavalier militarism and torture of the Bush years, as well as the consumerism and in-group-ism of the last thirty years, prodded many evangelicals to self re-examination.
Ironically, Bush may have shattered the Christian coalition that elected him. But with this bit of context, let me now turn to "new evangelical" views on abortion and gay unions. Overwhelmingly, "new evangelicals" oppose abortion on religious and ethical grounds.
Indeed, the idealism of young evangelicals, which leads them to work in poverty relief and environmental protection, leads them also to strong opposition against abortion. Yet "new evangelicals" have changed the way they approach the issue, away from the sort of activism that garnered so much publicity from the s to George W.
Bush's first term. This activism - from harassing women at family-planning clinics to threatening or killing doctors who perform abortion - is seen as contravening the most basic of Jesus' teachings and ethics.
Instead, "new evangelicals" hold that the Christlike relationship to pregnant women is one of service, requiring that evangelicals provide financial, medical, and emotional support for pregnant women pre- and postpartum. On this view, if one wishes to reduce abortion, one must remove the central financial and emotional reasons to abort.
Many "new evangelicals" also believe that a consistent pro-life ethics demands what Joseph Cardinal Bernardin called "the seamless garment of life. Among the few evangelicals who feel that legal abortion at least prevents the grim realities of back-alley operations are Jim Wallis, Leah Daughtry the Pentecostal minister who ran the Democratic nominating convention and Randall Balmer , professor of religion at Barnard University.
Balmer's aim is not to make abortion illegal but "to make it unthinkable" by providing significant support for pregnant women and children. He has also written critically of those evangelicals who, he believes, instrumentalized abortion for political gain. Noting that the biblical passages most cited against abortion all have other glosses Deuteronomy ; Psalm ; Luke , Balmer holds that squeezing anti-abortion interpretations out of them is a case of "selective literalism.
The Deuteronomic verse that encourages us to "choose life," for instance, has become an evangelical bumper sticker, but in its original context the passage means "choose the way of life, God's path. In his historical review of evangelical activism, Balmer notes that the anti-abortion movement gained momentum not in spontaneous outrage against legalization in but nearly a decade later, in the s. Its purpose, on his view, was to unite evangelicals as a political bloc and win votes for the Republican Party.
At the time of legalization, abortion had evangelical support. The official Southern Baptist position, expressed in its resolution, was to allow abortion under a wide range of conditions, including the emotional state of the pregnant woman:. Commenting on Roe v. Wade in , the Baptist Press wrote, "Religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision.
Criswell, pastor at the First Baptist Church in Dallas and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, also had no complaint:. Those who disagree with Balmer's analysis hold that evangelical opposition to abortion indeed began in the s, as a religious and moral protest against legalization.
Shane could be comforting unrepentant sinners into thinking they are excepted by God, when in reality repentance and forgiveness has not happen. I hope that once in one of your communities someone calls these sinners to repent, but in all the things I read and heard from you I have yet to here you ask sinners to repent I hope I'm wrong, Peace.
I disagree that Ted Haggard's sexual misconduct shouldn't be surprising to evangelicals. That we're all sinners is true; what happens next when we repent and follow Jesus is a powerful work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and conform us to the image of Christ. This is a real work, and one that should be visible in the life of any of the redeemed.
That the leader of a large flock was so entrenched in idolatry is absolutely shocking. What many like Shane and myself are allowing for is: the Spirit to work. When we become "exhorters"- even with the best of intentions - we minister through fear i. But when we preach only Jesus and lead others to Him, then the Spirit is able to work, and God's grace can come through.
And to use the wording "unrepentant sinners" by default creates an absolute mental divide, and colours those out of union with God as not being willing or capable of repenting. Which is not true. FRED - Paul spent a lot of time warning people to "flee from the wrath to come". He also said that "knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade people".
While I get your point, I feel it is leading to a "salt-less" Christianity that only wants to show the marginalized that we "understand" them. In reality, while we should be making them our friends it should also be understood that we must persuade them to flee from their immorality. Otherwise we just make nice friends out of people that are going to Hell. A lot of saying nothing in so, so, SO many words.
It's a lot more black and white than they like to admit. Shane Claiborne has a chance to be a real radical and stand up for something, an oppressed group of people and instead he supplies a bunch of bullshit hot air on how he doesn't really know but that's okay and isn't that nice?
Not so nice if you're gay and of all the oppressive, hateful, condemning texts in the Bible the ones about you are some of the few people can't seem to ignore. This reeks of "love the sinner, hate the sin.
Can't really be nice about sin I think this what the Holy Spirit's power is for, to turn our hearts, regardless of how we feel about whatever issue. Boyd: I think Christians are a little more paranoid of government than they used to be, which is good. Tippett: Well, right, and that is kind of where I wanted to go. Because, Chuck Colson, I have seen you write with concern as someone who lived through a period of seeing a president, an administration, corrupted by power or corrupted in the context of power.
Lots of people have made mistakes. Augustine, one of the great heroes of my life, was wrong when he authorized the state to prosecute heresy.
That was a mistake. And there is a right way to find it. There is a right way to work for it prudently. And I believe we are growing up as an Evangelical movement because we saw the excesses of the past. I saw firsthand how the political attraction can destroy very good people.
People will be deluded into thinking politics is going to solve all their problems. And it has distorted, in fact, our view of the Founders and of the notion of religious liberty. And James Madison, in particular, was absolutely an advocate of separation of church and state, not because it would make for good government, but because it would make for better religion. He said that whenever government got involved with religion, religion was warped.
Here we are, , and you are the new generation. And you are, it seems to me, rediscovering that same insight that James Madison articulated or that those early Evangelical Christians in the early colonies articulated.
And the U. These are the things that I think create confusion in people. And I want people to know the love and grace and enemy love of Jesus. Colson: Just let me add one thing to that.
Lewis wrote a wonderful essay about Christian patriotism. You can love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, and soul and also love your country as a way of loving your neighbor. Boyd: This is a real fundamental difference between us. The New Testament is also very clear that you are to respect the authorities because they are appointed by God to wield the sword in order for us to live peaceable lives.
So government has a role biblically, well established by 2, years of reflection, that the job of government is to preserve order and to do justice and to restrain evil. Colson: As a military man, I served my country proudly and would again.
Tippett: I think Shane wanted — Shane Claiborne is raising his hand, for the radio audience. Like Caesar can print a piece of metal with his picture on it.
Give it back to him. Caesar has not right to that. Or Dr. You can put your dogs on us and shoot us with your water hoses, and we will still love you. But we will wear you down by our love. Tippett: Shane Claiborne, in conversation before a live audience with two other Evangelical leaders of different generations, megachurch pastor Greg Boyd, and the late Chuck Colson.
As this discussion at the National Pastors Convention drew to a close, an audience member asked the panelists where the dialogue about same-sex relationship factors into the future of the Evangelical movement. This conversation happened in , but has gained new traction as an insight into enduring intra-Christian dynamics and discernment.
Colson: Well, Romans I makes it very clear that creation, that which is made clear to them, is made known to them, the existence of God in creation.
And Paul immediately goes on to say those who turn away from it have exchanged the truth for a lie and they end up — and then he talks about homosexual behavior. And so something which is so plain on its face is not normative. We do and should. And we should not be judgmental about them and we should not be prudish about it, but we have to recognize that it is not the way men and women are made.
Tippett: I think the question is about how the church and how Evangelical Christianity grapples with the fact that even the statement that you just made, which is so plain to you, is not the way everyone sees it.
And so — and this issue has been so bitterly divisive. The one is simply the terrible, abysmal track record the church has towards gays.
We have a sin gradation list — and I do see it as sin. I think Chuck is absolutely right. It misses the mark. You can be a church member and have that stuff, but the homosexuality issue is all of a sudden the deal-breaker. And who christened that the deal-breaker sin? They tend to stay away from us as much as the Pharisees.
And one of those reasons might be that Jesus never made a public policy trying to pass laws against them. And so I think we got to wrestle with that one. Claiborne: When I got to Philadelphia, I met a kid in college who told me he was attracted to men, and he felt like God had made a mistake when God made him.
He felt that from hearing things like this is not natural. So he felt like God made a mistake, and he wanted to kill himself. And that breaks my heart. Tippett: So here, illustrated on this stage is the fact that to be Evangelical is not one thing. Tippett: That you can love the Bible in common and take it seriously and have different interpretations. Tippett: I think this is a great illustration of this moment of discernment that Evangelical Christianity is in.
A question I have is — and this is maybe another way that we are all influenced by the culture we live in — the ways we know to grapple with hard questions on which we disagree are to fight and debate and be angry with each other. Are there resources deep within Evangelical Christianity that you have in common, that everyone in this room has in common, to possibly move towards — not necessarily move towards the same answers, but move towards walking together as Evangelicals with these questions?
How do you think about that? Colson: Well, let me give you a personal anecdote that may help you. When I first came to Christ, before I went to prison, a small group of men, five of them, kind of embraced me, and I was discipled by them. One of them is, today, former governor of Minnesota, Al Quie. He heard me give my testimony one night.
You love Christ. I love Christ. Great big, pound, ex-truck driver, ex-alcoholic, and all through Watergate and all through the years that followed, he helped me get started in the prisons. We were best friends. We never probably voted for the same candidate, but you can love each other. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter. Sign up for our free newsletter Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.
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