Focus on the Family attempts to smear two leading evangelicals — Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis — as New Age leftists.
Both evangelists have spent decades battling poverty and racism in America, but both evangelists also have strong records of upholding Biblical authority, emphasizing conservative belief in salvation through Jesus Christ, and maintaining a conservative sexual ethic.
Focus joins a Southern Baptist ideologue, Albert Mohler, in mischaracterizing the religious beliefs of Campolo and Wallis. Focus illogically implies that because Campolo and Wallis are less politically extreme than the SBC, Campolo and Wallis are somehow part of some nefarious leftist movement that is “outside Christian cardinal doctrines.”
As it happens, Campolo and Wallis have always criticized the partisanship of both left and right.
Unfortunately, the Progressives make FotF’s argument easier. Pealing the onion, the story was a Terry Mattingly column: http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2004/06/16/?printable=1
Here Mattingly quotes Robert Maddox, advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Maddox said the following:
Take, for example, the familiar verse in the Gospel of John in which Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
“Sooner or later,” said Maddox, ” the church crowd is going to wake up and realize that there are going to be a lot of people in heaven other than us Christians. I still believe Jesus is the way and the truth — for me. But it’s that last part that troubles me, the part that says ‘no man comes to the father, except by me.’
“I don’t think we can get away with saying that anymore. That might have worked in the ’50s, but it’s not going to work in the 21st century.”
So, in order to have moderate or progressive views, Maddox and other progressives are asking Evangelicals like myself to ignore a direct quote from Jesus. Ironically, it is actually quite easy to defend progressive causes such as the environment and social justice from Scripture. This has happened in the past. For example, President Theodore Roosevelt was an excellent blend of progressive politics and Christian faith. Likewise, the consistent pro-life views of Hubert Humphrey serves as a model who said that the measure of a society is how it treats those not in power: the unborn AND the young AND the old AND the disabled AND the minorities.
Both the Left and the Right ask Evangelicals to make the false choice between being Evangelical and being a member of the Christian Right. And since for most Evangelicals our faith trumps our politics, the large “support” for the Religious Right is obtained. (I don’t think either the Left or the Right realize how shallow the support for the Religious Right by Evangelicals really is. Note the recent story where the Baptists resented the Bush campaign using their rolls as contact lists.) This is a shame because the Bible in general and Jesus in particular transcends politics. Jesus challenges the conservative to be concerned about social justice, he challenges the progressive to not be loose on personal ethics, and he challenges the moderate to not just get along. But, if we still allow for the false dichotomy then this tension will not manifest itself. Thus, we are stuck in a rut.
Therefore, it left for those of us who see this as a false choice to let our Evangelical brothers and sisters know that it is a false choice. It will make us unpopular and we will be branded by some as traitors and New Agers. But, we are called to follow our Savior and He went down the same path of rejection. We can do no less.
This was supposed to be a test.
But then I realized this post is topical given Melissa Fryrear’s mischaracterization of those who do or don’t share a “biblical worldview.”