[asa] Re: Young Evangelicals was RE: Creation Care Magazine

On Jan 24, 2008 2:07 PM, Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu> wrote:

>
> As far as I can tell, politics (in the sense of religious right vs
> religious left) has nothing to do with this. It's all about finding ways
> to
> advance the kingdom of God. I have no idea, frankly, what the political
> views are of most of my students, as individuals,, and I don't really care
> very much. As a group, we know that they are more conservative than
> students generally across America, but that's no surprise to anyone. But
> it
> doesn't seem to affect this at all, either way. I'm very glad about that,
> b/c I don't think that the people being served care at all whether the
> hands
> helping them voted for Mr X or Ms Y in the last election. Nor do I.
>
> The one issue I am aware of, where politics does intersect with faith on
> campus, is abortion. Many of our students are pro-life (as I am myself),
> and some of them are active with organizations promoting that view. But
> IMO
> that issue is political simply b/c the national parties have made it so,
> something I won't pursue further here. I see it as religious activity
> that
> can become politicized, not as political activity with religious elements.
>
> Ted

That's exactly the point Wallis makes in his book. This is very much a
post-p artisan conversation. If you did try to dig into the party
identifications I would predict the students would be very put off. Wallis
describes himself as a 19th-Century Evangelical trapped in the 21st Century.
Thus the title of his book as he sees an historical analogy with the Great
Awakenings where social reforms are concomitant with personal revival. It
speaks poorly on how this has been corrupted by asking the following
questions: What party was Wilberforce? Did his party identification cause
him to seek to abolish the slave trade in England? Or, did it come from a
well-grounded morality based upon his Christian faith?

Speaking of which, the last known letter of John Wesley was to Wilberforce
and his message to him should be our message to the next generation of
evangelicals:

"Do not weary in well-doing."

Rich Blinne (Member ASA)

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Received on Thu Jan 24 16:29:56 2008