Thursday, November 10, 2011
Another One Bites The Dust
The primary reason I’m saying farewell to Evangelicalism is that I can’t determine what it stands for anymore. I know what Evangelicalism is clearly against, but what it stands for is mushy. And in those cases where I do know what Evangelicalism is for, I just don’t see Evangelicals doing those things. The walk doesn’t match the talk.He lists a number or reasons why this is the case:
- Perhaps Evangelicals just got smart and realized that it takes more than door-pounding to create converts. Still, I almost never hear Evangelicals talking about evangelism.
- I also don’t understand the Janus-like ability of Evangelicals to love someone on Sunday and turn on them by Friday. Evangelicals talk more about restoration than any group I know, yet I see almost nothing being restored, especially “fallen” Evangelicals.
- I also suspect the hero worship in Evangelicalism is to blame, in part, for that selective memory of friend and foe. Despite Paul’s recommendation not to slavishly announce allegiances, Evangelicals do so with abandon—until the inevitable feet of clay appear on the hero, and then it’s off to Nowheresville, as noted.
While I am not ready to give up entirely on being evangelical, there is a lot to look at here and I think it can be summed up by the observation that Evangelicalism is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Let's face it honestly, we make, or at least used to make converts, but committed Christ followers? Not so much. In the end, Evangelicalism has become the culturally acceptable, at least at the moment, form of religious expression which in American means it does not demand too much of us.
But that is also why I am not ready to leave the fold as it were. If it is indeed the acceptable form, then it is the most ready path to drawing people deeper into Christ.
Interesting situation is it not? Raises one question - where do I get my needs met? Answer: diving deeper into Christ by every means I have at my disposal and finding others. Lonely path, but so was Christ's and the apostle's.
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