Arjay's Weblog

Evangelical Cobelligerence

This past week I ran across the web site of Steve Camp.  Way back in the 1980's, shortly after becoming a Christian, I had a Steve Camp cassette.  He was part of what was quickly becoming a market-driven, thoroughly compromised genre of music called Contemporary Christian Music or CCM.  Steve has written what is known as  The 107 Theses - A Call for Reformation for Contemporary Christian Music.  It's a fantastic piece written in the hope that artists who serve Christ will strive to make sure that Jesus remains the focus of their work, not money, fame or fortune.

Steve has also recently written on what he calls "Evangelical Cobelligerence."  In a nutshell this involves Evangelicals rounding off the sharp edges of the Gospel in order to find union with others, even  non-Christians, in order to advance a set of moral or political goals.  Increasingly, conservative Christians are being used by those in government to assist them in their "art of compromise" which is the definition of political work.  After voting in every presidential election since I was 18 back in 1984, I sat out last November's election precisely because I had become sick and tired of feeling like some tool in the RNC's toolbox.  I had and still have some very strong disagreements with George W. Bush and I would not choose the lesser of two evils just because I am a Christian and that's what good Christians do. 

Moralism and legalism are not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If Christians were to gather all their political clout and eliminate abortion, put an end to homosexual unions, stop practices like alcohol abuse, smoking and gambling, and fill the halls of Congress and the President's cabinet with right-wing Christians, would the Gospel of Jesus Christ have been advanced?  Not necessarily and probably not.

I can't recall anywhere in the Bible where we see Jesus or Paul or Peter wringing their hands wondering how to seize power from the Emperor so they could advance their agenda.  Christ's Kingdom is not of this earth, so we shouldn't expect to see him trying to master the machinery of politics to win over the masses.

Steve Camp says it much better than I can, so without further rambling, here are links to his 2-part series on Evangelical Cobelligerence.  Friends, Steve's site is chock full of really good, sound, Biblical stuff - check it out!

Grace and peace,

R.J.

The Dangers of Evangleical Cobelligerence

The New Downgrade?  12 Dangers of Evangelical Cobelligerence

Steve Camp's Audience One Webpage

Christian Right's War on America

"Harper's Magazine's May cover stories about the "Christian Right's War on America," frightened me, although not the way Harper's meant them to.  I fear these stories could mark the beginning of a systematic campaign of hatred directed at traditional Christians.  Whether that is what Harper's intends, I cannot say.  But regardless of the intention, the effect seems clear."    Stanley Kurtz

Scary Stuff  -  Stanley Kurtz

Dominionist Domination  -  Stanley Kurtz

Emergent Church

"It's a massive movement among so-called Generation Xers and youngers, these generations that are the offspring of the boomers, and of course the boomer generation was very obsessed with what's been called Cafeteria Christianity where you take what you like and leave the rest.  These kids on the other hand, or young people, are saying we don't want the schlocky sort of happy-clappy worship experiences of our parents.  We want something valuable, something serious, something from the past, but these kids are the latchkey kids - the generation that raised themselves while their parents were driving their speedboats and having affairs - they were at home raising themselves.  They are wonderful young people who really have a lot of great instincts about trying to recover the creeds, the confessions, the great history of the church - they just don't have leadership.  Like their parents they don't know where to go because they don't have that direction."          Michael Horton

MP3 Audio  -  The Emergent Church Movement parts I and II

Pastor Todd Wilken interviews Dr. Michael Horton and Shane Rosenthal of the White Horse Inn radio program.
Issues Etc. Interviews on Emergent Movement

The Emergent Mystique - Christianity Today

Emergent Church - Nothing New Under the Sun