Dr. Tony Campolo

5 Good Minutes With: Tony Campolo

Christian Buckley — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:20:07 -0700

The Humanitarian Jesus Interview Series

Tony Campolo

If you don’t know Tony Campolo you should want to. Not because you will agree with everything he says, but because you can’t disagree with his passion and relentless pursuit of doing things better.

When we sat down in an old hall at Eastern University, I didn’t expect to leave understanding him completely, but I also didn’t expect to leave respecting him as much as I did. It wasn’t that I agreed with everything he said, but at 33, I was struck by the intensity and irreverence to ideology and labels I discovered in a man of 75 years who had advised at least one president and countless other leaders and students. The following few minutes of text is how our hour + interview launched off...

CB: As you look at the landscape of American Christianity coming out of the Bush era and into the Obama era, do you see the dialogue changing? TC: It's a very mixed bag. There are many good signs and there are many bad signs. It's question of how you view things. The glass may be half full or half empty as the old saying goes. I think the economic downturn, contrary to a lot of sociologists, is one of the best things that could have happened to America. A lot of Christian people are upset because they feel the old ways was what Christians were entitled to. It was a lifestyle in which we were 6% of the world's population consuming 43% of the world's resources. We just couldn't go on as a consumeristic society at the level of consumerism that had marked us over the last 40 years, some would say. It was an immoral lifestyle. There was no justification for living with the kind of affluence that had marked our lifestyles as had been the case. In simple language, we were spending about, this is sociological, at least 65% of our income on "stuff" that nobody really needed. And while we were buying "stuff" that nobody needed, half the world was trying to survive on less than $2.00 a day. That affluent, obscenely, consumptive lifestyle has been challenged by the economic recession and I almost see the hand of God in it.

CB: The church has been largely silent on materialism, but traditionally vocal on “conservative” moral issues. Has Obama and the downturn changed that?

TC: I think more than Obama, prime spokespersons in this country like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, have become very, very sensitive to the needs of the poor. While Franklin Graham and I would not be on the same page on a lot of issues, I think more and more, we are moving to the same page. What he's been doing for poor people around the world has been notable and it has to be chalked up to a social consciousness that might not have been quite as evident 10 years ago. On the other hand, I think that the liberal church mentality that understood Christianity as simply a social justice program has also been challenged. Not only is there an economic downturn, but every major denomination is hemorrhaging and losing members at a rate that staggers the imagination. And so suddenly, they have become very, very cognizant of the need to win people to Jesus Christ on a personal level. Because in the effort to declare the Kingdom of God on Earth, there has been the rediscovery of the ideas that you can't have a Kingdom without Kingdom people. You can't transform the world unless you have agents of transformation and evangelism.

CB: So are we moving left or right?

TC: Perhaps both. I think we are recognizing that if Christ is in you, you will be opposed to torture. If Christ is in you, you will raise questions about war. If Christ is in you, you will be environmentally concerned. Christianity is about inviting people into a relationship with Christ and Christ will then make these persons into agents of social change. When Christ comes in, He begins to change your thinking and your feeling and the more Christ like you become, in this process of being transformed, the more the things that have moved the heart of God will move your heart. That will make you into a radical in terms of social justice issues.

About the Book and Interviews “A corrective and a call to action all in one, Humanitarian Jesus shows that evangelism and humanitarian works can and should coexist harmoniously. In an accessible and non-academic style, Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson outline the biblical case for social and humanitarian investment and engage the topic through interviews with leading Christian thinkers, activists, and humanitarian workers—including Franklin Graham, Gary Haugen, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, Francis Chan, Mark Batterson, David Batstone, and more.” For a complete list of interviews and more information go to humanitarianjesus.com.

Defining Humanitarianism – Take 2: Defy Circumstance (and by the way it's friday..but sunday's coming)

Christian Buckley — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:11:37 -0700

If you asked 100 people what philanthropy or humanitarianism was all about, my bet is that almost all of them would very quickly begin to talk about circumstances.

Some might talk about education and healthcare - others about poverty, disease, deforestation, or hunger. Many would begin to describe the conditions in the “inner city” or Haiti or Africa. Perhaps a few would talk about solutions or their experience in reaching a need or touching a life. In the end, most, if not all, would in some way talk about circumstances. And, in many ways, they would be right.

“Circumstance - which moves by laws of its own, regardless of parties and policies, and whose decrees are final and must be obeyed by all - and will be”
Mark Twain

Billions of people on this planet live in frankly horrific circumstances. In my own life I encounter abused children, homeless drug addicts who are often mentally ill, poor day laborers, racially disenfranchised gang members who have been raised on violence, gravely thirsty Sudanese with little hope of water, and the list goes on. When I wrote this book I spent a year basically engaging with population after population who existed in circumstances so foreign to me that at times it was overwhelming.

And yet, through all of this, something began to show up. People. Persons. Faces. Names. Souls.

Every circumstance impacts a people group that is made up of persons who, according to the Bible, were created in the image of God and are known by Him. Every circumstance impacts a potential adoptee of God -- one of the “whosoever” – that Christ died for. Every circumstance impacts millions if not billions of eternal souls. The reality of humanitarianism is that at its root – it deals with the human – and at its root – is a soul that cries out for redemption. Humanitarianism at its best acknowledges circumstance and then defies it by focusing on people….people who need the Lord as one man put it.

Because, after all, today is Good Friday, let me put it this way: For every person in every circumstance we must always remember that IT’S FRIDAY BUT SUNDAY’S COMING (thanks Mr. Campolo).

The Thing that Will Destroy the Evangelical Church

Cara Davis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:55:38 -0800

“The thing that will destroy the Evangelical Church in the next 25 years, and it will, is the decision to be comfortable with our consumerist society. We are raising our children to be consumers, not people who are concerned about the will of God in this world.” – Dr. Tony Campolo from Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

Have you checked out Advent Conspiracy, an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption? http://www.adventconspiracy.org.