« The Dangers of Sprawl | Main | Great Prank »
October 27, 2007
The Emerging Evangelical Split?
This has been a long time coming.
In the past, Hybels has scrupulously avoided criticizing conservative Christian political figures like Falwell or Dobson. But in my talk with him, he argued that the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement had lost touch with their base. “The Indians are saying to the chiefs, ‘We are interested in more than your two or three issues,’ ” Hybels said. “We are interested in the poor, in racial reconciliation, in global poverty and AIDS, in the plight of women in the developing world.”This is good news for Christianity. For too long, our faith has been associated with one party and two political issues - homosexuality and abortion. I believe that in recent years, the political activism and partisanship of evangelicals have gotten in the way of the message that Christians are on this earth to communicate.He brought up the Rev. Jim Wallis, the lonely voice of the tiny evangelical left. Wallis has long argued that secular progressives could make common cause with theologically conservative Christians. “What Jim has been talking about is coming to fruition,” Hybels said.
Conservative Christian leaders in Washington acknowledge a “leftward drift” among evangelicals, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and the movement’s chief advocate in Washington. He told me he believed that Hybels and many of his admirers had, in effect, fallen away from orthodox evangelical theology. Perkins compared the phenomenon to the century-old division in American Protestantism between the liberal mainline and the orthodox evangelical churches. “It is almost like another split coming within the evangelicals,” he said.
Any trend that brings Christians closer to our true purpose is welcome. (H/t: Hot Air)
Posted by slublog at October 27, 2007 10:16 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3457
Comments
The problem I have is that I don't find the Democratic solutions to many of these "other" issues. I'd never suggest the church ignore the plight of the poor, but the Democratic answer to that issue always seems to be "throw money at it." I've always thought a lot of charity issues would be best handled by the government stepping out of the way and the church stepping up.
If there are groups that don't think there's much left to do or say about the two big issues, that's fine. I just don't think it's fair when people make blanket statements saying that it's the Democratic party that fits Christian values on everything else.
Posted by: Hal at October 28, 2007 02:23 PM
Our faith should inform our politics and not vice versa. But it's about much more than homosex and abortion, although both those issues are also a test of whether we shall practice self-government or whether we are cattle to be herded by judges.
Should we let criminals run free? Shall we practice envy in violation of the the Commandments? Shall we clone and euthanize?
I'd also note that Mr. Wallis is a life-long communist--no hyperbole.
Posted by: Noel at October 29, 2007 01:16 AM