I Surely Agree

After the reading of the column by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne “A Shift Among the Evangelicals”, I had concerns over his ascertations.

Below in italicized-bold are important segments of the column;
“Mr Dionne suggests, ‘The mellowing of evangelical Christianity may well be the big American religious story of this decade.’”

But Page's upset victory could be very significant, both to the nation's religious life and to politics. He defeated candidates supported by the convention's staunchly conservative establishment, which has dominated the organization since the mid-1980s. His triumph is one of many signs that new breezes are blowing through the broader evangelical Christian world…. "I believe in the word of God," Page said. "I'm just not mad about it.”

The evangelical world is going through a quiet evolution as believers reflect on the perils of partisanship and ideology and their reasons for being Christian. This will probably affect the nation's political life, but it will certainly affect the country's spiritual direction. My hunch is that not only moderates and liberals but also many solid conservatives welcome the departure.
Mr Dionne’s writes, “But the evangelical political agenda is broadening as new voices insist on the urgency of issues such as Third World poverty and the fights against AIDS and human trafficking.”

I have not attended church every Sunday for last few years, and am not a church-hopping person. However I have attended numerous Lutheran, Baptist and Catholic churches in the last 10 years due to travel or with Catholic roomates. Like their diverse membership, the Lutheran and Catholic churches across the country do have dissimilar practices. The messages stressed within the service and sermon, are sometimes disparate. The sacraments (communion) is not consistent in meaning and this lack of consistency has been an ongoing debate since before Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. However there has been a number of consistent messages among all denominations. This consistency is the promotion of charity.

Growing up in Indianapolis my family attended Trinity Lutheran on 16th Street. In an average East side neighborhood in the 80’s and 90’s, I remember the 70+ year old pastor, the late Walter C. Maas standing in the pulpit and teaching us the importance of tithing and charity. Before going to college I remember attending a service at Trinity with the current minister, Pastor John Herfurth. Pastor Herfurth came to the church in the early 1990’s and also touted the benefits and economic efficiencies of the charities for which our church approved.

Pastor Maas had called Trinity his home church for better than 40 years and Pastor Herfurth was not yet himself 40 years old. Maas was without a doubt the old school Lutheran pastor. He preached at the same church for nearly his entire pastoral career. Pastor Herfurth was young and an excitable pastor. Different “school” however in the 40 years separating their schooling at the seminary, it was apparent the core was consistent. Tithing and charity, concern for the “down-trodden” was among the core. Frankly, the phrase “others less fortunate” was so often a topic of discussion at church, this phrase is a bite of sound which I find myself repeating to this day.

Trinity was not the only church with concern for others less fortunate. Just 2 weeks ago, when attending Mountain View Lutheran Church in Ahwatukee, Arizona, the children’s message was about non-other than tithing. The sermon, hungry and poor folks in Africa and and a segway into a video presentation at the end of the service. The Mountain View endorsed charity, Compassion International, was an adoptive program to feed, clothe, educate and buy a bible for a young person. There were about 100 children who needed sponsors.

After finding a child to adopt, I stepped away from the table displaying the other children. I looked at the line of people. Wealthy Christians stood impatiently in line, eagerly waiting their turn to read the biographies and pick a child to support.
I have seen this same spirit for at least the last 20 years. I am confident the church has been consistent in this for decades before.

However the picture Mr Dionne paints of an average "Evangelical" is not like the above desciption. From a reasonable conservative and Christian, I do not know who he writes about? Maybe Baptists are more “angry” than Lutherans. The answer could just as easily be maybe not. I am not naïve to think there are some churches and individuals who may fit the Mr Dionne column, I just do not know any of them. As for the “mellowing” of the evangelicals. No, I disagree. I surely agree if Mr Dionne had used “watered down”, regarding the endangered story of faith and the “good news”. I honestly hear fewer “John 3:16” messages than I used to hear. This is what is alarming and the decades biggest story. Maybe I will ask 7 year old Deric Wahome of Kenya what he thinks of Evangelicals and this salvation stuff.