{"id":1682,"date":"2012-12-11T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T12:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/12\/four-changes-evangelicals-must-make.html"},"modified":"2012-12-11T12:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T12:04:00","slug":"four-changes-evangelicals-must-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/12\/four-changes-evangelicals-must-make.html","title":{"rendered":"Four Changes Evangelicals Must Make"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Just before the presidential election, I was invited to speak\u00a0in Berlin\u00a0at the annual meeting of the German Baptists\u2019 theological society.\u00a0The theme was the \u201csocial gospel,\u201d a topic on which I, as a historian, am reasonably well-informed, and the opportunity was a welcome interruption from\u00a0the incessant bombardment of election propaganda and the absurd claims so-called Christian politicians were then making. Once again, in the U.S. election campaign, our evangelicals\u2014including among them many of \u201cmy\u201d\u00a0Baptists\u2014were promoting a slew of \u201csocial issues,\u201d but precious little \u201cgospel.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0<\/div>\n
Self-proclaimed and media-designated evangelicals had done everything they could to defeat President Obama, and in the process they discredited the evangelical message and reduced it to a mere political gospel. From where I\u2019m sitting, it\u2019s obvious that they need to engage in the kind of soul-searching that results in genuine repentance\u2014but of course that is not likely to happen. But I will go out on a limb and suggest some places where they might begin. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/div>\n
1) The Southern Baptists need to get rid of the\u00a0discredited<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Richard Land immediately, not wait for his\u00a0announced retirement<\/a>\u00a0as President of the denomination\u2019s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which won\u2019t be effective until October 2013. Dr. Frank Page, the President and CEO of the Executive Committee, needs to act summarily and forcefully. He certainly must understand that Land\u2019s (and by implication the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s)\u00a0endorsement of Mitt Romney undermined the Southern Baptist witness. He and his office are an embarrassment to the convention, attract unnecessary criticism, and contribute to the public image problem that hinders the ministry of the SBC.<\/div>\n
The convention could channel the money expended on its tarnished reputation to the International Mission Board where it could do some real good in reaching men and women for Christ. Proclaiming a political gospel will never achieve this noble goal. Also, there\u2019s no need to jump aboard the \u201creligious freedom\u201d bandwagon when Southern Baptists could contribute funds to aid in the task of fostering religious freedom around the world through the respected and well-managed Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty.<\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just before the presidential election, I was invited to speak\u00a0in Berlin\u00a0at the annual meeting of the German Baptists\u2019 theological society.\u00a0The theme was the \u201csocial gospel,\u201d a topic on which I, as a historian, am reasonably well-informed, and the opportunity was a welcome interruption from\u00a0the incessant bombardment of election propaganda and the absurd claims so-called Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFour Changes Evangelicals Must Make<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just before the presidential election, I was invited to speak in Berlin at the annual meeting of the German Baptists\u2019 theological\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/12\/four-changes-evangelicals-must-make.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four Changes Evangelicals Must Make\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just before the presidential election, I was invited to speak in Berlin at the annual meeting of the German Baptists\u2019 theological\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/12\/four-changes-evangelicals-must-make.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-11T12:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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