Paul Edwards has a must-read article on Townhall.com today. The most important thing he says is this:
“The Religious Left is successfully redefining what it means to be a conservative evangelical by misrepresenting what it means to be a conservative evangelical.”
His next most important point is this:
“The new voices of the Religious Left – Rick Warren, Joel Hunter, Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, et al – are defining down what it means to be an evangelical by making the symptoms of man’s sin (poverty, disease, etc.) a priority rather than addressing the cause of those symptoms (sin) and the cure found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Paul Edwards rightly points out how the dishonest and slanderous portrayals of conservative evangelicals create a straw man caricature that is easy to take down and replace with their leftist evangelical model. Men like Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne, Rick Warren, Jim Wallis and company completely ignore the rich history of compassion ministry and the ongoing work being done by conservative evangelicals around the world. It is only through this dishonesty on college campuses and in churches around the country that men like these can attract followers for their supposedly more compassionate left-wing causes.
In the job that I do I get to meet a wide cross-section of believers involved in ministries of every kind. This fall I interviewed two missionaries who work on India’s border with Nepal in a remote region that is extremely primitive. They have opened a school for street children there. What started as a complete leap of faith is now growing by leaps and bounds as God has blessed their faithful labors. These Indian Christians told of miracle after miracle in God’s provision for them in their work, and their entire motivation is to serve Jesus Christ by caring for and sharing the Gospel with these forgotten children.
Brad Hayes of Outstretched Hands of Romania is a conservative Christian pastor who left Milwaukee, sold his house, his car and all his belongings, took his family of 7 and moved to Calarasi, a poor town in Southern Romania. He has been there several years now, holding tent meetings, teaching in surrounding villages and ministering to children through street ministry. The love of Christ and love for these children shines through his sacrificial work for Jesus. You won’t hear about Brad or the Indian missionary couple from Shane Claiborne or Tony Campolo or Jim Wallis. They don’t resemble the straw man callous conservative evangelical that they prop up at all their events. Further, the real issue Rick Warren and his ilk have with conservative evangelical compassion ministry is that it is done explicitly in Jesus name and with the Gospel front and center as the greatest need of all they serve. It is the Gospel part, front and center, that they do not want. So they mock conservatives, paint them as callous, selfish and narrow in their concerns, and then, playing off their false portrayal, they offer up an alternative. It’s very clever, and very dangerous for those gullible enough to believe them.
Disclaimer: Worldview Weekend, Christian Worldview Network and its columnists do not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article posted on this site. We do however, encourage a healthy and friendly debate on the issues of our day. Whether you agree or disagree, we encourage you to post your feedback by using the feedback button.
Excellent article. Few people outside of seminaries understand the extent to which the left has taken over the mainline and now the evangelicals. We would like to feature this article on our blog. Consider joining the Christians Against Leftist Heresy blogroll at http://christiansagainstleftistheresy.blogspot.com/ Click here to reply to this post
shane and jim
Posted On: 02/15/08 09:51:53 AM
Age 21, MN
Having read a book by both Jim Wallis and Shane Claiborne, having seen them speak, and hearing about what others know about these two people, i feel that your idea of their beliefs and the messages they put forth are seriously misguided. But what is Christianity without someone to blame for all of the world's problems, especially when you can slap a label on them in order to skew how people perceive these individuals. You complain about them misrepresenting conservative evangelicals when you clearly have done the same thing to them. The reason they bother you so much is because they don't pick sides and they don't draw lines. They do evangelism AND they deal with poverty and meetings people's needs. You can do both! They aren't mutually exclusive things! Jesus commands us to go out and make disciples, AND take care of the widows, orphans, and the poor. Jim Wallis doesn't want the Republicans to monopolize the mix of faith and politics, and Shane doesn't want modern Christianity to be safe and comfortable, but radical and Spirit empowered. Can you honestly look at the bible, and then look at the church today, and claim that our bastions of peace and comfort, and abundance do anything to help those in need? So people give some money to an organization. So what? That is just an excuse for not actually having to spend time with the people you think you are helping. -Dan Smith Click here to reply to this post
Liberal Evangelicals are apostate to Christianity
Posted On: 02/18/08 11:43:11 AM
Age 64, OR
They all are pushing for a ecumenical one world religion. enough said...God will deal with each and all. Click here to reply to this post
Solve the Heresy Problem First
Posted On: 02/15/08 07:44:47 PM
Age 41, WI
Before we worry about solving the world's ills caused by the sin problem, perhaps we'd better get our Christian doctrine straight first. Mr. Shane Claiborne, as well as Jim Wallis and his sidekick, Tony Campolo have some serious theological problems---it's old-fashioned damnable heresy. Here is an excerpt from an interview Shane Claiborne did with Tony Campolo. It's from a piece called, "On Evangelicals and Interfaith Cooperation". Read and retch.
SC: Both Muslims and Christians are very evangelical in the sense of desiring others to come to faith in their God. When we talk about inter-religious cooperation, does that mean that we need to stop trying to convert each other?
TC: We don't have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don't convert, they are God's people, God loves them, and we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell.
I think that what we all have to do is leave judgment up to God. The Muslim community is very evangelistic, however what Muslims will not do is condemn Jews and Christians to Hell if in fact they do not accept Islam.
SC: That seems like a healthy distinction—between converting and condemning. One of the barriers seems to be the assumption that we have the truth and folks who experience things differently will all go to Hell. How do we unashamedly maintain a healthy desire for others to experience the love of God as we have experienced it without condemning others who experience God differently...
As you can see, solving the world's problems is the least of our worries. First evangelicals need to solve the heresy problem in their churches. Click here to reply to this post
STRAW, WOOD, HAY, AND STUBBLE
Posted On: 02/15/08 03:46:01 PM
Age 64, OH
Dan the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will prevail in the end and we will all see whose work is straw. wood, hay and stubble. That will all be burnt up in the fire. That will be the work of EVERY MAN and only the work that The Lord Jesus has done Himself will be left. Dead men can not work. All true follows of the Lord Jesus are dead and Jesus lives in them and only He can work. Lou Click here to reply to this post
poor are hurt
Posted On: 02/14/08 06:45:06 PM
Age 49, TN
Jim Wallis's solutions are include hefty tax increases; this always hurts the poor when higher taxes mean business owners can't afford to hire people. So he's not helping on any level. Click here to reply to this post
Not so fast...
Posted On: 02/14/08 01:21:25 PM
Age 26, TX
And how much credit does the fundamentalist right ever give to non-fundamentalist ministries and organizations (or--gasp!--government programs) that are compassionate and serve the greater good? Yet you discount them because they may do it without necessarily preaching your particularly narrow view of the gospel. It's a two-way street. It's the writers, talk show hosts, politicians and arrogant church leaders of the fundamentalist right that earns a bad reputation, not the missionaries out in the world who are actually showing love and compassion (and who are ALSO dealing with the less-important "symptoms" of poverty and disease.) Click here to reply to this post
For quite some time the seeker movement and now the emergent movement have been seeking to downplay doctrine, ignore the Scriptures, be "cool" with the world, and seek to redefine what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. These liberals would have us to believe that only those on the left and Democrats truly care for the poor, the homeless, the sick, the suffering, etc. but in reality the true Church of Jesus Christ has done much for not only the physical needs of men but the truth of salvation in Christ alone. Click here to reply to this post
There will be hell to pay
Posted On: 02/14/08 10:02:03 AM
Age 61, MO
The Bible is clear about the judgment of the anti Christian false prophets, and the persecution by worldly governments in the form of the beast: both who take their orders from satan the dragon. They will be cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:13-15). Not only the false leaders but their followers as well. It is commanded that we speak up against this heresy, that we may wash our hands of their blood, or be counted amongst them, even though it may seem that they do not hear. (Ezekiel 33:1-9). These false prophets such as Warren et al. are like Hananiah, who prophesy that things will be fine, when in fact God has deemed otherwise. (Jeremiah 28). George Cancilla Click here to reply to this post
