Archive for February 5th, 2008
White evangelical voters: poverty no. 1 moral issue
I had always been a skeptic of the church of personal peace and prosperity … of righteous people standing in a holy huddle while the world rages outside the stained glass. But I’ve learned that there are many people of the cloth who are also in the world, and from debt cancellation to the fight against AIDS and for human rights, they are on the march. – Bono
Change is indeed in the air. As voters head to the polls (I write this on Super Tuesday, 2-5-08, in the USA), the main moral issue on the minds of white evangelicals is now poverty! That homecoming is nothing short of astonishing.
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I could see this shift in action a few weeks ago in Davos at the World Economic Forum. I got to see Rick Warren in action, motivating business and political leaders to put poverty, disease, and peace-making higher on their agenda. Kristof tells a story about Warren, who for many years didn’t pay much attention to these issues of social justice and compassion. Then, during a 2003 visit to Africa, Rick came into a ramshackle tent where a little church was caring for 25 AIDS orphans.
Rick said, “I realized they were doing more for the poor than my entire megachurch. … It was like a knife in the heart.” Kristof recounts how Rick turned this heartbreak into action: mobilizing his church to constructive action in 68 countries, recruiting 7,500 members to pay their own way to serve poor people around the world – experiencing a transformation in their own values and priorities in the process.
Mm-mm. That’s renewal: hearts moved toward the priorities of Jesus.
OK, God: Show me my place in it!
Tags: Rick+Warren, Kristof, Brian+McLaren, AIDS, Africa, religious+right, religious+conservatives, evangelicals, abortion, social+conservatives, Davos, global+warming, Darfur, Monte Asbury
Written by Monte
February 5, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Posted in Discipleship, Environment, Evangelism, healthcare, Jesus, Loving, Ministry, Politics, Poverty, Religion, Social change, Spiritual Growth