Being An Oxymoron - by Tony Compolo at Huffington Post

Being An Oxymoron
by Tony Compolo
at Huffington Post

"A few weeks ago I was a guest on Steven Colbert's popular television show, The Colbert Report. He introduced me as an Evangelical who is liberal on social issues. Then he added, "He's a living oxymoron!"

Sadly, his words reflect the way Evangelicals are regularly perceived. Here in the United States, Evangelical Christians have become so married to the Right wing of the Republican Party that it is hard for those outside our faith community to imagine that a significant minority of Evangelicals have socially liberal politics.

Yet over its history, Evangelical Christianity has championed some of our country's most progressive social movements. Charles Finney, the dominant evangelist of the nineteenth century, was a major player in the anti-slavery movement, and his revivals provided much of the impetus for the women's suffrage movement of that era. Back in those days, Evangelicals pulled their churches out of mainline denominations not because the denominations were too socially liberal on the race issue, but because they were not liberal enough. William Jennings Bryan of Scopes Trial fame, the darling of early twentieth century Evangelicals, was a pacifist who opposed America's involvement in war. I gladly take my place in his train.

The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism--then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

.... Snip"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-campolo/being-an-oxymoron_b_22895.html

One of my favorite Christians.