Tony Campolo and the Power of Doublespeak

WorldnetDaily’s Joseph Farah addresses the eel-like behavior of Dr. Tony Campolo when it comes to hard, fast moral issues addressed in God’s Word. With verbal slight of tongue, by leaving words out, by redefining words, by weaving this way and that, by a variety of smoke and mirror tricks, Campolo tries to appear as though he is oh-so-biblical, while he is anything but. As heretic emeritus of the emerging church movement, (long before it was called “emergent”), Campolo has been undermining the authority of the Word of God for years. Over the next few days, I will be sharing some excerpts from a paper on Campolo that I wrote several years ago. Bear in mind this was written long before the emerging church emphasis on environmentalist causes, etc.

Tony Campolo and the Power of Doublespeak

by Ingrid Schlueter, Copyright, 1997, 2008

Casual readers of Campolo’s books will be convinced that his worldview is biblical. He calls young people to have a passionate relationship with Christ. He talks of reaching the world with the Gospel. He talks about helping the poor and reaching out in our communities. He talks about showing love to God’s creation. Then he elaborates. Showing love to God’s creation in Campolo’s lexicon means opposing the constraints of zoos and Sea World¹ and embracing the political ideology of Greenpeace and Worldwatch Institute.² It means establishing a mystical “I-Thou” relationship with animals,³ and it means encouraging churches to imitate the animal blessing service held at the world’s largest New Age church, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.⁴ Reaching out in our communities for Tony Campolo includes participating with the American Muslim Council, the Unitarian Universalist Association, Planned Parenthood of America’s Clergy Advisory Board, the quasi-Buddhist SEVA Foundation, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Democratic Socialists of America and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.⁵

Preaching a complete Gospel includes holding candlelight prayer vigils outside offending factories,⁶ and calling on the church to help stop what he claims is the world’s grave overpopulation problem.⁷

How does he manage to make these assertions seem biblical? There are several ways.

William Lutz, author of the best selling book Doublespeak and professor at Rutgers University once wrote the following:

“Doublespeak is language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. It is language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, and the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable. Doublespeak is language that avoids or shifts responsibility, language that is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language that conceals or prevents thought; rather than extending thought, doublespeak limits it.”⁸

The use of doublespeak includes the use of phrases and terms that rename otherwise objectionable concepts. In Dr. Campolo’s usage, the left-wing animal rights movement becomes “creation care.”⁹ Embracing the agenda of Worldwatch Institute and Greenpeace becomes Christian “Stewardship” of the earth.¹⁰ Brutal laws such as China’s one-child-per-family mandate become “farsighted” population control strategies.¹¹

Doublespeak also works the other way. Pejorative terminology quickly denigrates things most people would not find objectionable, such as disposable diapers and cans of deodorant. In Tony Campolo’s lexicon, using disposable diapers or aerosol deodorant is “ecologically sinful.”¹² Preaching that homosexuals must repent becomes “homophobia” and “gay-bashing.”¹³ In fact, Campolo says that new types of sin need to be introduced related to environmentalism. He writes:

“In short, they must be introduced to forms of sin and righteousness that will seem, in all probability, completely new and somewhat strange to them.”¹⁴

Speaking out against the wickedness of Clinton White House policies becomes “meanness.”¹⁵ On the environmental front, watering your lawn or consuming fuel becomes “environmental terrorism.”¹⁶

Whatever the subject he is addressing, another one of Dr. Campolo’s favorite techniques is to make unsubstantiated pronouncements as though they were fact. He uses the doublespeak method of preventing thought by using grandiose and highly controversial statements which most people fail to question. The following are examples:

“The Salvation that John 3:16 talks about is for everything in the universe, not just for people.”¹⁷

“The world’s population is now growing at a staggering rate. We will soon have a globe that is packed with ten billion people and an earth that is unable to support that many mouths.”¹⁸

“It is thoroughly a pro-life question to ask the question of how to keep the globe at a sustainable growth level.”¹⁹

“The world is on a crash course toward poverty and violence because of over-population. If we feel the sharp need to end abortions-as-birth-control, we need to plan now for other means of birth control.”²⁰

“There is a feminine side of God. I always knew this.”²¹

“Once I wanted to be the enemy of the enemies of Jesus. But little by little I am realizing that Jesus refuses to declare any of us to be His enemies, even though there are those who would like to dignify themselves by assuming the title. And the more I become aware that our Lord does not view His enemies as His enemies, the more it becomes difficult for me to define them as my enemies.”²²

“Christ’s call for justice would require that we work to end the discrimination that has made homosexuals into second class citizens and denied them their constitutional rights.”²³

Biblically literate Christians reading the above quotes would immediately challenge the assumptions underlying these statements. The problem is, many who read Campolo’s books are not students of the Word and have no basis to refute what he is saying. Rather than question his faulty starting points, they move on. In short, Dr. Campolo prevents thought in order to move his readers to the next phase–his political and spiritual agenda for the world.

To be continued. Tomorrow: Selling New Age Theology: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Endnotes

1. Tony Campolo, How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992), 158.
2. Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman, 50 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1992), 94. (Also see 50 Ways You Can Be Pro-Life, Page 151)
3. Tony Campolo, How To Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992), 52-53.
4. Ibid., 140
5. Nina George Hacker, “Whose Ethics and Meaning?: The Radical Left Disguised As Religion,” Family Voice Magazine (July 1996): 24-25.
6. Tony Campolo, 50 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1992), 130.
7. Tony Campolo, 50 Ways You Can Be Pro-Life (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1993), 115-116.
8. William Lutz, Doublespeak, (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), 1.
9. Tony Campolo, How To Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), 6, 130.
10. Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman, 50 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1993), Resources for Action, point 46.
11.Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman, 50 Ways You Can Be Pro-Life (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1993), 116.
12.Tony Campolo, How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), 151.
13. Tony Campolo, “What About Homophobia?”, Prism Magazine (February 1994): 20.
14. Tony Campolo, How to Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992), 151.
15. Tony Campolo, “Campolo Has New View of President,” Minnesota Christian Chronicle (1993).
16. Tony Campolo, How To Rescue the Earth Without Worshiping Nature (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1992), 129-130, 163-164.
17. Ibid., Preface.
18. Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman, 50 Ways You Can Be Pro-Life (Downers Grove: Intervarsity, 1993), 115.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 116.
21. Tony Campolo, Carpe Diem (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), 85.
22. Ibid., 87.
23. Tony Campolo, 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch (Dallas: Word Publishing,1988), 109.

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles