Zeitgeist & the Faithful
I have been working through a book that without question would be a most incendiary tome for many fundamentalists: How to be Evangelical Without Being Conservative. The title intrigued me, and has been an enlightening read thus far. Roger E. Olson, professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, has written a passionate, even-headed volume that dares to offer a response to the right-wing elements which have claimed evangelism as their own. I plan to write a comprehensive review and summary once I've finished it. However, the last two paragraphs of a chapter entitled "Transforming Culture without Domination" just lays it out perfectly. At least to this Jesus-loving unabashed non-conservative reader. I know there will be MANY who don't concur....
My suggestion is to let the world of culture outside the church be what it is and will be, leaving it to God to manage history and society. What God has called us to do is obey Him, and there is no mandate in Scripture to take over the culture for Christ. The only mandate given to Christians is to follow Jesus Christ in individual and communal life and thereby be "in the world but not of it."
Too often conservative evangelicals have succumbed to being of the world by adopting its political practices of power as domination and control. Christian activism on behalf of the victims of injustice (blogger's note: Oops! He said "injustice". Isn't that the very word which rankled so many after Donald Miller's DNC prayer?) is good and should take the form of prophetic denunciation and annuniciation by word and example of another way. But nothing will speak louder to the world than love and justice practiced within Christian communities.
Until and unless that happens, the world of culture can hardly be expected to experience Christian involvement as anything but hypocritical and frightening.
My suggestion is to let the world of culture outside the church be what it is and will be, leaving it to God to manage history and society. What God has called us to do is obey Him, and there is no mandate in Scripture to take over the culture for Christ. The only mandate given to Christians is to follow Jesus Christ in individual and communal life and thereby be "in the world but not of it."
Too often conservative evangelicals have succumbed to being of the world by adopting its political practices of power as domination and control. Christian activism on behalf of the victims of injustice (blogger's note: Oops! He said "injustice". Isn't that the very word which rankled so many after Donald Miller's DNC prayer?) is good and should take the form of prophetic denunciation and annuniciation by word and example of another way. But nothing will speak louder to the world than love and justice practiced within Christian communities.
Until and unless that happens, the world of culture can hardly be expected to experience Christian involvement as anything but hypocritical and frightening.
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