Dr. Tony Campolo in Chapel
Oct 27, 2008 by Howard Baker | 1 Comments
Dr. Tony Campolo will be lecturing in the chapel tomorrow at 11am. Here are some short quotes to pique your interest:
When you talk about evangelicals, don't forget that a significant proportion of the evangelical community is African American. And most African Americans - well over 90 percent, thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly biblical - will probably vote Democratic.
When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will YOU be happy when everybody else is crying?
Of the 22 industrialized nations of the world, we're dead last in per capita giving to poor people.
My theology is such that the God who loves Israel and will not forsake Israel - which is why I want to see Israel have a secure nation with secure borders - also loves the Palestinians.
I think it goes back to the fact that the evangelical community often does not have a biblical vision of God.
I contend that, in spite of all that might be said about Watergate, Richard Nixon was good for the poor people of America.
I'm a minister, and I serve as a minister in addition to being a university professor.
In short, I'm not sure that the abortion problem can be solved by legislation. I think it can only be solved through moral persuasion.
Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.
...during times of reflection I sensed that believing in Jesus and living out His teachings just wasn't enough. There was a yearning for something more, and I found that I was increasingly spiritually gratified as I adopted older ways of praying--ways that have largely been ignored by those of us in the Protestant tradition. Counter-Reformation saints like Ignatius of Loyola have become important sources of help as I have begun to learn from them modes of contemplative prayer.
He saved us in order that He might begin to transform His world into the kind of world that He willed for it to be when He created it. ... When Jesus saved us, He saved us to be agents of a great revolution, the end of which will come when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God.
Hope to see you in chapel tomorrow!
Comments
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John Akers Nov 3, 2008 8:20am
Howard -
Wish I could have been there to hear Tony--but a flight from Reno isn't in the budget at the moment. I do wish more evangelicals were asking the questions he is--for the sake of dialog.
I have a friend who I had know for almost 25 years. We went to concerts, drank beer together and talked politics and Jesus. He is very left wing. For years he avoided the gospel because of his peception that evangelicals didn't care about the issues of justice and world poverty that mattered to him.
Two years ago, he accepted Jesus and I asked him a question. "Gary, now that you are a Christian, you aren't going to give up being a liberal are you?" He said, "No, I have discoverd you can be a Christian and still read a newspaper and pray over the issues presented." Through the years, I have not agreed with him on many issues, but I have learned much from his critical thinking, and an outlook that differs from mine. He challenges me still (now as a brother) and I dearly love him and the fact that he is still a liberal.
JA