Link: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience – Books & Culture.

Ron Sider is at it again.  He so wants USAmerican evangelical Christians to be Christian, yet the overwhelming evidence is that evangelicals are succombing to the dominant USAmerican culture. Think Ron has it wrong … read his discussion below about evangelicals and divorce, materialism and its implications for caring for the least, the last, and the lost, sexual disobedience (!), and racism.  Fortunately, we can learn from the church at Laodicea (see Revelation 3:14-20) about being transformed from lukewarm christianity into signs of God’s hope for the world.

Ronald J. Sider, "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why don’t Christians live what they preach?" Books & Culture, 11.1 (January/February 2005), p. 8.

Once upon a time there was a great religion that over the centuries had spread all over the world. But in those lands where it had existed for the longest time, its adherents slowly grew complacent, lukewarm, and skeptical. Indeed, many of the leaders of its oldest groups even publicly rejected some of the religion’s most basic beliefs.
In response, a renewal movement emerged, passionately championing the historic claims of the old religion and eagerly inviting unbelievers everywhere to embrace the ancient faith. Rejecting the skepticism of leaders who no longer believed in a God who works miracles, members of the renewal movement vigorously argued that their God not only had performed miraculous deeds in the past but still miraculously transforms all who believe. Indeed, a radical, miraculous "new birth" that began a lifetime of sweeping moral renewal and transformation was at the center of their preaching. Over time, the renewal movement flourished to the point of becoming one of the most influential wings of the whole religion.

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