The Evangelical Scandal

Christianity Today has published a very interesting and challenging interview with Ron Sider, who says the evangelical "movement is riddled with hypocrisy, and that it's time for serious change." The first part deals with how the evangelical community is, in many ways, indistinguishable from the world. I could quote any number of paragraphs, but any one demonstrates his point:

Take the issue of racism. A Gallup study discovered that when they asked the question, "Do you object if a black neighbor moves in next door?" the least prejudiced were Catholics and non-evangelicals. The next group, in terms of prejudice, was mainline Protestants. Evangelicals and Southern Baptists were the worst.

He touches on statistics about sexual immorality, sex abuse, divorce, materialism, and others.

Dick Staub, commenting on the big business that evangelical Christianity has become, describes the problems in the church by writing,

Evangelicals, unencumbered by a radical gospel about sacrifically serving and loving others, [have] replaced it with a gospel of personal, familial and professional success.

How do we turn the ship around?

We need to rethink our theology. We need to ask, "Are we really biblical?" Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture. We also lack a biblical understanding and practice of the church.

I have long believed that there are serious problems in the evangelical community. We have been corrupted by wealth and political power. I could go on and on with examples, but will save that for another post. I believe it is time for a revival within the evangelical community.