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Councilor learns hope is more than a
word
Friends present service award to
Thornburgs
Pastoral Pondering: Seizing an
opportunity
to cross the cultural barrier
Campolo
seeks balance
of evangelism,
social justice |
The media commentator on religious, social and political
matters speaks as part of Christian Life Week |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
For Tony Campolo, it’s all about balance.
Campolo — a media commentator on religious, social and political matters
and a professor emeritus in sociology at Eastern University in Pennsylvania —
recently spoke at George Fox University about the need for balance between traditional
evangelism and social justice in contemporary churches.
“We need both rather than either,” he said before a speech Tuesday
as part of Christian Life Week.
Too often ministries choose one or the other and forget that for either
premise to work people must have a little of each, Campolo asserted.
But without the missionary aspect of evangelistic ministries spreading the
word about social justice issues that are usually tackled by mainline religions, the
message gets lost.
“There’s a need for emphasis on Quakerism in today’s
Christianity,” he said.
Campolo said he feels that believing in Christ means that ministries have to
uphold certain morals but be sensitive to others; people have a right to their opinions,
but they need to be more sensitive to others in their delivery.
“I think first of all the Quaker message has come of age,” he
said. “They talk about a need for peace, while the evangelical churches have
been big supporters of the war (in Iraq).”
In politics right now, he said the most powerful religious group is the
religious right pushing militant action.
“(We need to learn) how can we be reconcilitators with the awareness of
the sacredness of every individual — the presence of God in every individual,”
he said. “The security of America depends more on the friends we make in the world
than in the armies deployed.”
In addition, Campolo said he would do a lot of talking about poor people.
“The first thing we need to do is recognize our responsibility to the
poor,” he said. “For every dollar Americans give to the poor Norway gives
$70.”
Campolo said he feels that Americans hold a belief that they are generous,
but he disagrees with that notion.
With the recent tax cuts, Campolo worries about the poor and how they will
survive in a nation in which 44 million Americans, including 13 million children,
have no health care.
“I wonder what God thinks of that?” he said.
Campolo said that although there are more than 2,000 verses in the Bible that
deal with poverty, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. And it disturbs him that so
much of the church isn’t as concerned with poverty as they are with someone’s
sexuality.
“Often the priorities of Jesus and the priorities of the church are not
the same thing,” he said. |
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From Sept. 20,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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