Tony actually spoke twice at the convention, but I only was able to see him once. His second message was titled Becoming Red Letter Christians, and I bought the CD's, which I plan to listen to very soon. I think it will be great to listen to these, though I'm pretty sure what he's going to say. And honestly, I know I'll probably just agree with it. But onto the message I did hear.
Campolo spoke for one of the general sessions, which means this: he stood up in front of thousands of Southerners and, to summarize in my own words, "what part of love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you do you not understand?" He talked about the way we treat homosexuals, our support of Middle East domination, and torture and how all of these things are contrary to the teachings of our faith.
What I especially appreciated was a few words he brought up about situational ethics. You know the questions: if somebody is about to ________ (something horrendous), and you can stop them by killing them, isn't it the Christian thing to do? Campolo was blunt as he crushed this kind of thinking down, asking us how our faith has gotten so far off track that we can start entertaining questions of situational ethics rather than simply listening to and following Jesus. Oh, I just wanted to make everybody in my entire church listen to it! Tony Campolo really is a prophet speaking to a people who have moved away from the God they claim to follow.
More than learning anything as far as information is concerned, I learned from Campolo that I can be bold about what I know God desires for myself and his American followers. We are so far off track, and I for one do very little about it when it comes to my preaching and teaching, because quite honestly I'm usually too afraid. That is BS. I keep losing my male students to the military and I somehow think that being "subversive" and trying to give them different dots that lead up to a correct answer will work, but it never does. Yesterday there were people literally outside my office door singing "God Bless America" and I just keep working at a place where the idolatrous cocktail of worshipping God and Empire together is stirred and drank to the dregs on a daily basis. Enough. There is another way, and I realize that I have to follow.
Peace,
Matt
One quote from Campolo: "Maybe we should start getting our eschatology from Jesus rather than Tim Lahaye."
Reading: I'm way into The Other Journal, which I've added a link to. Check it out!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment