The website An Evangelical Manifesto just went live a few minutes ago. It’s been mentioned in the news over the last few days. Now the complete text and list of charter signatories are online. Both of which I was curious to see.
I’m interested by who’s absent from the charter signatories as well as who’s listed. I’m pleased to see Erwin Lutzer signed it (I went to his church for 12 years).
Edited to add: here’s a couple of minutes of audio comments by Os Guinness about the origin and purpose of the Manifesto
I haven’t read it all yet – it’s long – but from what I’ve seen and heard so far I think it’s a step in a positive direction.
I like this, near the beginning
Too many of the problems we face as Evangelicals in the United States are those of our own making. If we protest, our protest has to begin with ourselves.
And this Read the rest of this entry »
05-07-2008 |
60 Comments »I ran across a new blog the other day: Cream Crackers. It’s the blog of a 19 year old university student in the UK called Claire.
I found it because Claire’s first blog entry mentions Off The Map. It begins
I’ve been feeling pretty, well, un-faith-filled of late. My life’s gone pretty pear-shaped, and I’ve ended up completely stopping attending CU at uni, basically stopping attending church meetings, and my relationship with God just doesn’t seem to be there any more. To put it bluntly, I don’t want to be a Christian.
It’s not that I have particular trouble believing in God (although sometimes I’m skeptical and as I’ve said I don’t feel it right now), or that Jesus lived, was amazing, and even rose from the dead two millenia ago, but I hate the culture of mainstream evangelical Christianity, it makes me feel sick to my stomach and I don’t want to be associated with it. I know they’re doing their best, but all I ever seem to see is the damage and hostility their good intentions cause. If that’s really what the Christian faith is all about then my faith is dead, as I want no part of it.
Fresh hope has come for me tonight in the form of the concept of ‘Otherlyness’, put forward by Jim Henderson et al (see: www.offthemap.com).
01-02-2008 |
15 Comments »Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine included a very interesting article about Evangelical Christians and Politics: The Evangelical Crackup.
Just three years ago, the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement could almost see the Promised Land. White evangelical Protestants looked like perhaps the most potent voting bloc in America. They turned out for President George W. Bush in record numbers, supporting him for re-election by a ratio of four to one. Republican strategists predicted that religious traditionalists would help bring about an era of dominance for their party. Spokesmen for the Christian conservative movement warned of the wrath of “values voters.” James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, was poised to play kingmaker in 2008, at least in the Republican primary. And thanks to President Bush, the Supreme Court appeared just one vote away from answering the prayers of evangelical activists by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Today the movement shows signs of coming apart beneath its leaders.
10-29-2007 |
3 Comments »I guest posted the following on Jason Clark’s blog this morning.
A Roman Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue will take place in Chicagoland this Sunday evening. One of my friends, John Armstrong, organized it.
Do you see value in dialogue about theology between Christians who have significant theological differences with one another?
If so, which Christians with different beliefs from you would you most like to have a dialogue with, assuming they’re open to it?
09-13-2007 |
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