Krista Tippett has moderated an event with Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne. It took place during the National Pastors Convention in February. All are key leaders for each of their generations. If you want to check out some info on each person head here. Audio for the event is also there. A video of it can be found here. It is about an hour long. Thanks to Debbie for pointing this out to me.
Essentially the discussion is about how/if Christians should be involved in politics.
It was only 30 years ago that almost every Christian stayed out of politics and we have seen in the last 30 years a total switch from that mindset. This change was something helped by Colson’s book Born Again. Boyd was a pastor who refused to support conservative politics from the pulpit. Shane is a leading voice for today’s postmodern generation.
Some of my thoughts on their discussion:
- None of them question whether we must be involved in politics, what they questioned is how we are involved. They all resounded in unity on this subject.
- Our job is to live out the kingdom of God; we need a more holistic view of what it means to be engaged in politics.
- Shane made the distinction that Mother Theresa would never have worn a shirt that said “anti-abortion” but she would always say that “if you don’t want your baby, give it me.”
- I totally agree with Shane when he says that Christianity gets extremely distorted when it gets into the hands of political power. The mix of the two creates confusion to many within Christianity and almost everyone outside of it.
- Chuck Colson gets boxed into conservative Christianity but I think his willingness to agree with and converse with men like Shane shows he is a champion for conservative Christianity.
- Boyd poses the question: When did the sin of homosexuality become so much more important to Christians than gossip? I pose that sexual sin has been stated in the Bible as a sin of the heart and should be taken very seriously. However, no sin is beyond grace and Christianity’s track record of treatment towards gays is poor at best.
Here is another blog on the same topic by Jonathan Brink.
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