Monday, May 05, 2008

An Evangelical Manifesto

This Wednesday a document called An Evangelical Manifesto will be released to the public. It appears that the contents will reflect much of Os Guinness new book, The Case for Civility, which is reviewed favoribly elsewhere on this blog. (A longer review of it by me should come out May 18 in The Denver Post). Eighty evangelicals leaders have reportedly signed it.

1 comment:

spud tooley said...

thanks for bringing some attention to it; post your reaction to it when you can - i'd like to hear your thoughts.

i had some hesitations and misgivings before reading the document, but was actually quite impressed and invigorated after taking in the whole of what it addressed.

they chose not to say that creationism and inerrancy were non-negotiables - i liked that. for the first, there's very little biblical justification anymore behind whatever the latest flavor of anti-natural-selection dessert is being served up; for the latter, somehow we can admit that we can't prove the existence of God, but goshdarnit we have a golden egg this unprovable God laid right here. kind of stupid when you think about it ... not that thinking is a pre-requisite course in any of these endeavors.

more than anything, i was motivated and energized by the very positive nature of the piece - that it wasn't yet another "here's everything we're against" rant but an effort to make the gospel again a message of good news. imagine that - the gospel being good news. American Christianity has lost this defining characteristic ever since it embraced the neo-con's Jesus bobble-head doll.

and, maybe i missed it, but there didn't seem to be great emphasis on evangelism in this Evangelical Manifesto. was that intentional? i didn't see a single chick tract referenced in the bibliography...

perhaps one unintended benefit of the proposal is a clear opportunity to take this EM (Evangelical Manifesto) and align it with the other EM (Emergent Manifesto) and finally have all our EM & EMs in a row without demonizing the other side.

one can only hope...

mike rucker
fairburn, georgia, usa
mikerucker.wordpress.com