Posted on 03/26/2006 3:57:48 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Dan Wakefield wants to make it clear that he is not calling for "holy war."
True, the title of his new book, The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate (Nation Books, $23.95), may sound like a shot across the bow of, oh, about half the churches in America.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
I don't personally know Wakefield but I've seen him around the FIU campus.
A budding freelance journalist from Indianapolis, Wakefield lived in Greenwich Village...
Not that there is anything wrong with that...
Wakefield cites Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, two Evangelical authors disturbed by the hard-right politics dominant in Evangelical churches.
So Wakefield holds up NUTCASE Tony Campolo as a theological role model. Anyone else out there ever see Campolo speak? Flat out LOON. Oh, and he was the guy that Bill Clinton was laughingly joking to right after Ron Brown's funeral. When Clinton spotted a news camera on him, he INSTANTLY changed his demeanor to one of teary grief. Unfortunately, Campolo didn't know about the change of mood mandated by the news camera and he kept right on laughing.
Oh please, declare a 'holy war'.
I'm still chucking over Wakefield's positive citing of NUTCASE Tony Campolo. Ever hear him speak? He sounds like he is badly in need of a butterfly net.
Never heard that particular nutcase. I doubt if he is that much different than the typical left-wing nutcase.
Mr. Wakefield was baptized as a child at the First Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, and at age nine attended a Baptist Bible School class that led him to choose baptism by full immersion at the age of eleven. During college he became an atheist, and did not return to church until 1980 when he went to a Christmas Eve service at King's Chapel, a Christian church in the Unitarian-Universalist denomination in Boston. He joined that church, served on its vestry and as co-chair of its adult religious education committee, and served on the national board of the Unitarian-Universalist Christian Fellowship.Sounds like he's about as Christian as your average Unitarian.
You never heard of Campolo? He was one of the "spiritual" leaders that Clinton turned to for "advise" on how to overcome his sex addiction for Monica. I bet when the two met in private, they traded dirty jokes. Anyway, Campolo is good for a bellylaugh when you hear him speak since he is such a whack job. Maybe somebody out there can search for some video of Campolo speaking like a loon.
Strange that Chaaaaawncy Mabe didn't mention that bit about Wakefield being a Unitarian.
Ping to read later
The fundamental problem of the "social gospel" is that it is neither social nor the gospel.When a leftist speaks of "society" he means nothing other that government. There is nothing "social" about the destruction of charity by government cooption.
And since the "social gospel" places trust in the benevolance of Caesar, it is not a Christian gospel.
Tony may not fit my notion of a Spirit-filled intimate with Jesus. But he walks the walk a LOT better than a lot of pastors I've met.
He and his group more or less turned some Caribbean country around fairly wholesale via their sacrificial giving and thoughtful interventions.
He and fellow yuppies live on about 20% of their salaries adn devote the rest to well thought-out selfless Christian gifts and works.
And, he certainly seems to believe that Christ came in the flesh; died for our sins and rose the 3rd day etc.--all the basic doctrines of the faith.
He's a sociologist. Has more of a liberal political bent, perspective than I'd prefer by a long shot. But he's not a loon.
Our men's group went through 3 or 4 of his books in Taipei very candidly. We all came away respecting him more than I, at least, did before that.
I don't know about him walking the walk but when he is talking he sounds like a flat out loon. You ever seen video of him TALKING? I admit he is good for LAUGHS but only because he sounds like a complete NUTCASE.
He and his group more or less turned some Caribbean country around fairly wholesale via their sacrificial giving and thoughtful interventions.
Haiti?
His sermons are OK, but when he speaks of social issues, he has a Liberals tendency to confuse God with goverment.
He's deliberately VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING.
He tries hard--and very successfully, I think--to jar folks out of their tidy little boxes theologically and provoke them to Love and Good works.
And, he does that amazingly well.
They discovered that a multi-national corporation owned 3/4 or more of a certain Caribbean nation.
The corp's lands were devoted to sugar cane for export. And the laborers were paid a very poor wage and the whole country was devastated in a rather calloused, very unChristian, very even dysfunctional way. It wasn't even in the corp's interests to be doing things the way they were.
So, Tony and his group bought 2 shares of stock and showed up at the annual meeting with placards and made a big fuss of a demonstration.
The board of directors was impressed enough to give Tony and group an hour or two for a special presentation of their grievances.
The Board of Directors turned out to be Presbyterians. They were loathe to find out the hard effects of their policies on the laborers and the country as a whole.
I think the corporation ended up giving Tony and his group $11 million to implement their suggested changes.
The Marxist leader of the country was somewhat jokingly angry with Tony and his group because they'd taken all the wind out of his sails. He had no more platform to agitate with. Tony and group had not only fixed all the wrongs he was ranting against but had gone beyond them and made things much better even than the Marxist had lobbied and agitated for.
And, the corporation came out ahead in a variety of ways as well.
Tony and his fellow yuppies (6-8 couples and families--living mostly on the same poor section of town block) do this by having one lawn mower betwen them; fewer cars which are shared etc. . . . his son was voted one of 10 best dressed at Harvard though he got all his clothes at thrift shops etc.
But, hey, if you wish to rant against someone living so much more of a personally selfless, sacrificial Christ-like life than average--help yourself. I'm skeptical Christ will agree with your perspective. But I'm sure you can find many who will.
I don't think it was Hati.
He works at being funny. I enjoy his humor. I don't consider him a nutcase at all. Yes, I've seen his videos. I think he does the Body of Christ a great service at challenging man-engineered sacred cows etc.
Further, when he's challenged on something by his Christian bretheren, he is more than willing to meet and work it through to the best of his ability. He doesn't isolate himself in his own holier-than-thou ivory tower and just throw rocks at the opposition. He works hard at genuine resolution producing dialogue.
I know a lot of Christians more flamingly liberal than Tony is.
He at least believes in personal responsibility.
He also believes in Christians being super compassionate. So, he's likely to err in that direction.
Campolo is right out there with Bishop Gene Robinson and The Rowan Williams. He's just more skillful at using Christian vocabulary.
Please show me. I haven't seen him that off the wall by quite a margin.
And WHAT magical Caribbean island are your referring to? I lived in the Caribbean so I would be curious as to its identity.
I don't recall the country--if he disclosed it. He mentioned the company, as I recall. But I've forgotten that. It may have been Gulf Western or Gulf something.
I would not be at all surprised that you and I would have different perspectives on Tony, regardless of the video evidence.
Sounds bogus to me but I'll give Campolo the benefit of the doubt and call the country...Oz.
I would not be at all surprised that you and I would have different perspectives on Tony, regardless of the video evidence.
So I shouldn't believe what my own eyes see? And when I watch Campolo I see a whack job. Must admit he is good for LAUGHS however.
Whoa! All of your information on this magical Carribean turnaround came from Campolo himself? Did you ever consider perhaps he was telling it from a different perspective?
Tony Campolo -- and the guy is so low-key it's hard to find anything on him other than the several Google pages' worth of self-promotion -- has an organization (EAPE) which has worked in The Dominican Republic and in Haiti. Haiti is pretty much a hell-hole and DR is supposed to be almost as bad, although they do produce incredibly good baseball players.
The fifth dimension perspective.
There is nothing wrong with compassion, but there is everything wrong with using the force of government to take money from people.
Tony Compost is a Marxist Socialist posintg as a preacher. he's a worthless piece of garbage.
an elderly friend of mine, who is not a retired wealthy executive from a very large regional gocery/variety chain once picked up compost at an airport in his Jag when Compost was coming to the city for a speaking engagement. Compost almost immediately proceeded to chastisr my friend for driving a Jag. My friend felt a bit guilty for a while even though he regularly made charitable donations, some of which were in the six-figure range. I told my friend he should have dropped compost at the nearest 7-11 and to find his own way to the event.
But, hey, he turned around (according to HIM) the mystical Caribbean island of Oz.
I do have to admit that his "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming" sermon about Easter is very good; but that must have been over 20 years ago. The only Christian counselling he should have given Clinton is "Resign; you've lost all of your moral authority to lead."
Aside from his marxist/socialist theology and phoney piety; his failure to condemn Clinton's sinful behavior doesn't help.
He's nothing more than a modern-day Pharisee; judging others without knowing their hearts.
Besides, he does not strike me as a liar or even as a proud self-agrandizing sort of person.
But, hey, ya'll have him judged and sentenced already. Perhaps you'd best inform God so God can carry out the sentence.
In terms of the info coming from Tony alone, I think there were 2 other men of his group in that meeting where he spoke. I don't remember what they had to say in support of the whole story.
BTW, Tony wrote WITH HIS SON one of the best books on fathering and rearing of sons that I've ever read. And, the full flavor of his quality values as well as his quality personality comes out full force in that book. It's also funy and extremely candid and vulnerable.
Personally, I'd think that voicing the kinds of criticisms ya'll are against him without reading any of his books or looking at a variety of his videos would be . . . at best wholesale UNChristian.
This is my favorite:
Things We Wish We Had Said: Reflections of a Father and His Grown Son by Tony Campolo (Hardcover - Aug 1989)
They both talk about the same incidents from their respective perspectives. Very touching and enlightening.
Carpe Diem is excellent.
I think this is an excellent book, too:
Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God by Tony Campolo.
I think these three have such experiences in it as the Caribbean one:
50 Ways You Can Feed a Hungry World by Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschliman (Paperback - Oct 1991)
You Can Make a Difference by Tony Campolo (Hardcover - April 23, 2003)
101 Ways Your Church Can Change the World: A Guide to Help Christians Express the Love of Christ to a Needy World by Tony Campolo (Paperback - Dec 1993)
I loved this one:
It's Friday but Sunday's Comin' (Contemporary Classics) by Tony Campolo (Hardcover - Oct 14, 2002)
I think the following one is VERY GOOD for reading and discussing with teens and pre-teens:
Who Switched the Price Tags?: A Search for Values in a Mixed-Up World by Tony Campolo and Anthony Campolo (Hardcover - Oct 1986)
May be true of Wakefield. Not near as familiar with him but I gather I would not like his book.
But Tony C is a very authentic and serious Christian who walks the talk.
Who said anything about him being the second coming.
I'm only insisting that he's not the pile of manure that folks hereon want to blackwash him as.
In fact, he's a far better far more sacrificial, servant-hearted Chrstian than most Chistians I know.
Do YOU live on 20% of your income and give the rest to the poor and other COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT works in the poorest countries of the world?
Sounds like you called yourself a liar, in that line.
Perhaps the issue is to compare the Dominican Rep before and after Tony's group impacted it.
Oh, I know. Such a sensible Christian approach to assessing Tony and group's efforts wouldn't be near as much . . . devilish fun?
I do think Tony was a bit polluted by his sociologist education.
But he's not quite as socialist as most of them are.
Still, I would like to see him much more conservative than he is.
Nevertheless, he still out Christians most Christians I know.
I agree about telling Klintoon to resign.
Was quite unhappy with his counsel to Klintoon. But then, I don't know, really what it was. It was private.
So, I assumed things and felt bad at him from my assumptions.
Not very Christian, that.
I don't think it's because Holy Spirit told him to.
***He's nothing more than a modern-day Pharisee; judging others without knowing their hearts.***
Oh, you know his heart? Since, you judged him... I would not to conclude you are being Pharisaical.
I'm somewhat torn on such issues.
JESUS HIMSELF SAID, IF A BRO NEEDS A COAT AND YOU HAVE TWO--GIVE HIM ONE OF YOURS.
IF Christians really obeyed that, poverty would be cured. Of course, we'd have to do more--like community development and requiring and teaching to fish vs just receive handouts.
But Tony does that hard type of charity community development work.
Tony is passionate about helping the poor. Somehow, he seems to have much more of the heart of Jesus about it than the folks on this thread come across as having.
Sheesh! Why not just put up the Tony Campolo Amazon links?
I wanted to note which ones had touched me most and had been the biggest aid and encouragement to my Christianity.
I don't notice anyone holding a gun to your head to read any of them.
Though you'd likely benefit if you did--that is, if you experienced some miracle of grace which allowed you to read them with a Holy Spirit discerning open mind.
LOL! Tony Campolo...the Savior of the Domican Republic. And now I expect they will change the name of Ciudad Trujillo to Ciudad Campolo.
You seem to throw rocks very, very, very freely
and that without so much as 10% exammining the evidence.
I suppose you want us to believe that this is
CHRISTlike behavior on your part?
That indeed is one of the finest sermons I've heard. I did a search a couple of years ago and found the text on the internet.
One does not want to sit in the front row without an umbrella when Tony preaches.
He was spot-on with the preaching of the Gospel when I heard him back in the '80's. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him with Billy Jeff at Brown's funeral. If I remember correctly, he was one of his 'spiritual advisors' during the Monica days.
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