Mining the Mission | Young Evangelicals, Politics, and Practicality
What would Jesus do?
No, really, what would Jesus do?
That seems to be the question driving the young evangelicals profiled in Sunday’s New York Times piece about "a new generation that refuses to put politics at the center of its faith and rejects identification with the religious right." These men and women care less about who is in office than they do about the actual messages that Jesus preached. When asked why he and his young congregants of the St. Louis Baptist church the Journey gather monthly in a brewpub — Southern Baptists are typically teetotalers — senior pastor Rev. Darrin Patrick said, "That’s where people are having their conversations about things that matter. We go where people are because we feel like Jesus went to the people."
Importantly, notes the Times, these shifts do not mean that "younger evangelicals have abandoned the core tenets of their faith, including a belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus and the literal truth of the Bible. They think abortion and homosexuality are sins." But:
Younger evangelicals focus more on "the ethic of Jesus" than on political issues, said Adam Smith, editor of the religion and culture magazine Relevant. They gravitate toward practical social action, Mr. Smith and others said, like working with poor, academically troubled inner-city schools, a priority at the Journey, or against human trafficking. While older evangelicals are also involved in such issues, younger people shy away from their emphasis on political organizing.
I have some issues with some evangelical positions, but I still applaud Rev. Patrick and his congregants for, in essence, returning to their mission. Look, I’m certainly no theologian, but what I see here is men and women completely committed to the core issues of their faith — not to culture wars or to wedge issues or to the politics of demonization. Isn’t that what mission is all about? | 501(c)
1 opinion for Mining the Mission | Young Evangelicals, Politics, and Practicality
Letitia (The Damsel)
Jun 11, 2008 at 11:49 am
link
http://talithakoumfiles.blogspot.com/2008/06/journey-in-ny-times.html
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