Evangelicalism

We are in the early stages of what I think historians will one day call religion's Evidential Reformation. Increasingly, most of us relate to scientific, historic and cross-cultural evidence as more authoritative than a literalist reading of Scripture.

But what I want the "Bill Maher"s of the world to know is that the evangelicals' God is not the best form of Christianity.

We now know that the moral dimension of human life derives not from religion but from our need, as social animals, to cooperate and live in community with each other.

Liberty is only a virtue when held in tandem with the common good. Societies do not achieve liberty by pursuing liberty alone. Liberty is the byproduct of a just society.

Calls for reforming the community's engagement of homosexuality are, I think, having an effect. In my observation, evangelicals increasingly are fed up with the way the Christian church has often spoken to and about gays and lesbians

The church cannot become the state, but the church has an obligation to bear witness to the state. To fulfill this role, evangelicals must rise above the typical left-right debate and learn to speak with a voice that is truly Christian.

Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr. were both evangelical Christians. They both preached a gospel which was incomplete without the other. Graham's message needs King's message and vice versa.

I imagine Rob Bell feels a lot like I have on many occasions: it's not that the critics have understood what I'm trying to say and have explained why they disagree. They've misrepresented what I'm trying to say and have explained why the misrepresentation is audacious and ludicrous.

Many believers never outgrow their childhood concept of God as a kind or mean daddy in the sky, one who needs our admiration, can be cajoled for special favors, and covers or beats our backs when we get ourselves into trouble.

Inasmuch as evangelicalism as most people understand it today really came into being after the mainstream media sanctioned its existence, it has died. Thus, it was dead the moment it was most alive.