Read the Red-Letters

‎(NET) Matthew 6:6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

I've been reading through the book of Matthew during my morning devotions and it's really reinforcing for me Tony Campolo's concept of "Red-Letter Christians," that if you read the red-letters, the words spoken by Jesus Himself, it's pretty difficult not to adopt a progressive point of view or abandon a hyper-conservative one.

Matt 6:6 for example flies in the face of pushing for mandatory prayer in public schools or publicly flaunt one's praying like GOP candidates Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry have done on the campaign.

Loving our enemies & praying for those who persecute us in Matt 5, storing up treasures in Heaven in stead of serving money as a god in Matt 7, not judging others in Matt 8, giving to the needy in Matt 25... So much of Jesus teaching seems contrary the ideas of this world, of America today, and of the Republican party and the "1%."

Rick Santorum may tap into many Christians fear and anger about abortion and homosexuality, but I for one think he could stand to read some of the "red letters." I'm not saying that we throw out the book of Leviticus, but I encourage Christians to spend some more time in the book of Matthew.

We can't follow, imitate, emulate or obey Jesus if we never read what He Himself taught. 

This year, make it a goal to read through Matthew. Pay attention to the red letters and are if God doesn't change your mind about a few things, open your eyes about a few things, plant a few things in your heart and do some new things in your life. I DARE you!

Once you do, pass it on (especially to your Republican and independent friends!)

Choose Love Not Power

One of the things that I feel strongly about when it comes to politics and religion which I hope this blog reflects, is that we should follow the example of Jesus, not the example of Machiavelli. It seems to me that if we want to call ourselves "Christian," we must adopt the humility and sacrifice of a servant-leader like Jesus. 

Too often people who think of themselves as Christian instead operate under the assumption that life is a zero-sum game, that we must win by controlling everything at all costs- thus the so called "culture wars." Part of the problem of this kind of militarism is that it presupposes that God can't win unless we do everything we can. Hello? Isn't He omnipotent? It also assumes that our perceptions of what needs to be made right is always absolutely correct and if He's not taking care of it, then we must. Hello? Isn't He omniscient and eternal? And aren't we each, and every one of us imperfect, impatient and mortal?

Perhaps the biggest problem with the "waging war in God's name to somehow reclaim the culture on His behalf" world view is that in our zeal, we too often fall into believing and living by the falsehood that "the ends justifies the means." If we believe that God opposes something we assume that it must be okay to do just about anything and roll over pretty much anyone in our quest to advance His "kingdom." 

First of all, "ends justifies the means" is from Machiavelli's "The Prince," whereas "Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you" is from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Second of all, some scholars now think that "The Prince" may have originally been intended as a political satire. In other words, he was making fun of power-hungry, manipulative, greedy politicos (like Steven Corbet does today), NOT offering sage advice on how to accumulate affluence or acquire and retain political power.

One of my favorite Christian authors, sociologist and political activist Tony Campolo has a new book, "Choose Love Not Power."  I'm looking forward to reading it and just listened to a series of radio interviews he gave on the subject. Campolo explains that Jesus (and our) authority doesn't come from negative campaign ads or signatures on petitions or position or prestige- but rather from credibility and that credibility comes as a result of love and service. Like the old saying, "They won't care what you know until they know that you care."

This is a great argument for good works. Not because you need to do good works to be saved (we are saved by grace) but 1) others need our help, 2) it shows love, and 3) it builds our credibility up so that we can speak with authority because people will know that we speak from love, not from some misguided compulsion to be in control.

In other words, if the Word is the seed, and the soil is a trampled path, a stony area, or a weedy spot- perhaps showing love and being wiling to become a servant will help plow, cultivate, or fertilize that soil so that it will be more receptive to the seed. 

Here is the podcast of Campolo's interviews:

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“Choose Love Not Power” Interview

Tony Campolo delivered this sermon at World Christian Broadcasting Corporation in Franklin, TN on May 25, 2010

Download Outline | Download Audio

See notes on these interviews and links to other Campolo podcasts at his Web site:
http://tonycampolo.org/sermons/2010/05/choose-love-not-power-interview

My favorite Progressive preacher/author

Here are a couple of video clips of one of my all time favorie writers. Professor Tony Campolo, Christian Sociologist and activist from Eastern University in Philadelphia