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I Don't Know What To Make Of The Muslim Mystics, Especially Those Who Have Come To Be Known As The Sufis. What Do They Experience In Their Mystic Experiences? Could They Have Encountered The Same God We Do In Our Christian Mysticism?

-Tony Campolo

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I Don't Know What

Tony Campolo

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I Don't Know What To Make Of The Muslim Mystics, Especially Those Who Have Come To Be Known As The Sufis. What Do They Experience In Their Mystic Experiences? Could They Have Encountered The Same God We Do In Our Christian Mysticism?

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We Don't Have To Give Up Trying To Convert Each Other. What We Have To Do Is Show Respect To One Another. And To Speak To Each Other With A Sense That Even If People Don't Convert, They Are God's People, God Loves Them, And We Do Not Make The Judgment Of Who Is Going To Heaven And Who Is Going To Hell. I Think That What We All Have To Do Is Leave Judgment Up To God. The Muslim Community Is Very Evangelistic, However What Muslims Will Not Do Is Condemn Jews And Christians To Hell If In Fact They Do Not Accept Islam.

It Seems To Me That When We Listen To The Muslim Mystics As They Talk About Jesus And Their Love For Jesus, I Must Say, It’s A Lot Closer To New Testament Christianity Than A Lot Of The Christians That I Hear. In Other Words If We Are Looking For Common Ground, Can We Find It In Mystical Spirituality, Even If We Cannot Theologically Agree, Can We Pray Together In Such A Way That We Connect With A God That Transcends Our Theological Differences?

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University Professors

An Evangelical Is Somebody Who, First Of All, Has A Very High View Of Scripture, Believes It's An Infallible Message From God.

Our Call Is To Be God's Agents, To Rescue Not Only The Human Race But The Whole Of Creation.

There's Nothing Wrong With Making A Lot Of Money, There's Something Wrong With Keeping It.

I Applaud The Growing Commitment Of Evangelicals To The Needs Of The Poor And Oppressed In Urban America.

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There Is No Doubt That Religion Had Already Waned Under The Onslaught Of The Enlightenment, But It Was Freud Who Provided The Radically New Understanding Of Human Nature That Made Any Religious Explanation Of The Whats And Whys Of Our Personhood Seem Naive.

Nothing Is More Dangerous Than To Live Out The Will Of God In Today's Contemporary World. It Changes Your Whole Monetary Lifestyle...let Me Put It Quite Simply: If Jesus Had $40,000 And Knew About The Kids Who Are Suffering And Dying In Haiti, What Kind Of Car Would He Buy?

I Think The Time Has Come For The United States To Do Even-handed Justice.

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I Think The Real Place Where Most Evangelicals Have Trouble With The Democratic Party Is On The Issue Of Abortion.

If Marriage Really Is A Sacred Institution, Then Why Is The Government Controlling It, Especially In A Nation That Affirms Separation Of Church And State?

Don't Be Satisfied With Just Pumping Blood.

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I Don't Doubt That God Can Bring Good Out Of Tragedies, But The Bible Is Clear That God Is Not The Author Of Evil!

The Two Hot Issues Are The Gay Issue And The Abortion Issue. These Are The Two Defining Issues In The Evangelical Community These Days. I'm Sure That These Hot Buttons Will Be Pushed, Time And Time Again.

If A Guy Is Intimidated By A Woman In Leadership, He Has Real Problems With His Own Concepts Of Masculinity. That's A Harsh Statement, But I Believe It To Be True.

To Prevent Discussion Of Any Other Explanations Of Human Origins Is Hardly What I Would Expect From Open-minded Educators.

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If We Were To Set Out To Establish A Religion In Polar Opposition To The Beatitudes Jesus Taught, It Would Look Strikingly Similar To The Pop Christianity That Has Taken Over The Airwaves Of North America.

I Have Serious Problems With Fundamentalist Christians And Their Creationist Theories. Although I Believe That Scripture Is Divinely Inspired And Infallible, I Have A Hard Time Going Along With The Belief That The Whole Creation Process Occurred In Six Twenty-four Hour Days. My Skepticism Is Due, In Part, To The Fact That The Bible Says That The Sun Wasn’t Created Until The Fourth Day Of Creation (genesis 1:16-19). I Have A Hard Time Figuring How Twenty-four Hour Days Could Have Been Measured Before That.

Anyone Who Resists The Notion Of Women Preachers Is Functioning As A Tool Of The Devil.

Jesus Refers To The Poor Over And Over Again. There Are 2,000 Verses Of Scripture That Call Upon Us To Respond To The Needs Of The Poor. And Yet, I Find That When Christians Talked About Values In This Last Election That Was Not On The Agenda, That Was Not A Concern. If You Were To Get The Voter Guide Of The Christian Coalition, That Does Not Rate. They Talk More About Tax Cuts For People Who Are Wealthy Than They Do About Helping Poor People Who Are In Desperate Straits.

Your Past Is Important But It Is Not Nearly As Important To Your Present As The Way You See Your Future.

What We Need To Affirm Is That Jesus Is Neither A Democrat Nor A Republican. Whenever We Marry Jesus To A Political Party, We Are Committing The Sin Of Idolatry. We Are Making Jesus Into The Image Of Our Political Party.

And We've Got To Ask Ourselves Some Very Serious Questions As To Whether Or Not Certain Religious Leaders, In Terms Of Raising Money - I Hate To Bring This Up - Are Pushing Hot Buttons.

Today, Some Of The Most Spiritual People I Know Claim To Be Without Religion.

There Is A Feminine Side Of God. I Always Knew This … It Is This Feminine Side Of God I Find In Jesus That Makes Me Want To Sing Duets With Him … Not Only Do I Love The Feminine Is Jesus, But The More I Know Jesus, The More I Realize That Jesus Loves The Feminine In Me. Until I Accept The Feminine In My Humanness, There Will Be A Part Of Me That Cannot Receive The Lord’s Love. … There Is That Feminine Side Of Me That Must Be Recovered And Strengthened If I Am To Be Like Christ … And Until I Feel The Feminine In Jesus, There Is A Part Of Him Which I Cannot Identify.

Freud Taught Us That It Wasn't God That Imposed Judgment On Us And Made Us Feel Guilty When We Stepped Out Of Line. Instead, It Was The Superego - That Idealized Concept Of What A Good Person Is Supposed To Be And Do - Given To Us By Our Parents, That Condemned Us For What Had Been Hitherto Regarded As Ungodly Behavior.

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What I Am Trying To Say Is That Jesus Who Incarnated God 2,000 Years Ago Is Mystically Present And Waiting To Be Discovered In Every Person You And I Encounter

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It Has Been Said That People Never Do Evil With More Enthusiasm Than When They Do It In The Name Of God.

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I Am Relatively Sure, From Conversations That I Had With Former President Bill Clinton, That George Bush Seldom Called Upon Him For Advice.

I Don't Know Of Many Evangelicals Who Want To Deny Gay Couples Their Legal Rights. However, Most Of Us Don't Want To Call It Marriage, Because We Think That Word Has Religious Connotations, And We're Not Ready To See It Used In Ways That Offend Us.

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While I Can See How The Government Has, At Times, Wasted Taxpayers' Money, And I Can Admit That Too Often Its Programs Are Ineffective, I Also Can See The Good That Government Does.

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But I Contend That If We're Providing Total Medical Coverage For Every Man, Woman, And Child In Iraq, Shouldn't We At Least Be Doing The Same Thing For Every Man, Woman, And Child In The United States?

Rise Up, You Suckers, And Go Out And Do The Work Of Jesus!

I Teach At Eastern University, Which Is Highly Committed To Doing Work Among The Poor And The Oppressed Peoples Of The World. We Have A Special Commitment To The City.

But Isn't It Time For Christians To Admit That We Should Reject Bargains If They Are Gained By The Exploitation Of The Poorest Of The Poor In Developing Countries?

Developing Countries

I’ve Got To Push Everything Out Of Mind Save The Name Of Jesus. I Say His Name Over And Over Again, For As Long As Fifteen Minutes, Until I Find My Soul Suspended In What The Ancient Celtic Christians Called A “thin Place”–a State Where The Boundary Between Heaven And Earth, Divine And Human, Dissolves. You Could Say That I Use The Name Of Jesus As My Koan.

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So I Really Would Like To See Both Parties Respond To The Poor With Greater Commitment. But I've Got To Tell You, The Democrats, I Feel, Are Doing A Better Job In That Respect Than Republicans Are.

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So After The Lewinsky Scandal, Everything Changed, And We Moved From Using The Bible To Address The Moral Issues Of Our Time, Which Were Social, To Moral Issues Of Our Time That Were Very Personal. I Have Continued That Relationship Up Until The Present.

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While A Case Can Be Made For Intelligent Design, I Can't Figure Out Why Some Christians Are So Thrilled About That Possibility. First Of All, It Doesn't Prove There's A God. If Anything, Intelligent Design Lends Support To Some Form Of Pantheism That Defines God As Immanent Within Nature.

I Contend The State Ought To Do Its Thing And Provide Legal Rights For All Couples Who Want To Be Joined Together For Life. The Church Should Bless Unions That It Sees Fit To Bless, And They Should Be Called Marriages.

A Strong Case Can Be Made For Religious Leaders To Speak Out On Political Issues.

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The Traditional Spokespersons For The Evangelicals, Such As Chuck Colson And James Dobson, Have Become Alarmed About This Drift Away From The 'family Values' Issues That They Believe Should Be The Overwhelming Concerns Of Evangelicals. They Have Expressed Their Displeasure In Letters Of Protest Circulated Through The Religious Media.

I Propose That The Government Should Get Out Of The Business Of Marrying People And, Instead, Only Give Legal Status To Civil Unions.

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He Saved Us In Order That He Might Begin To Transform His World Into The Kind Of World That He Willed For It To Be When He Created It. … When Jesus Saved Us, He Saved Us To Be Agents Of A Great Revolution, The End Of Which Will Come When The Kingdoms Of This World Will Become The Kingdom Of Our God

I Don't Know What To Make Of The Muslim Mystics, Especially Those Who Have Come To Be Known As The Sufis. What Do They Experience In Their Mystic Experiences? Could They Have Encountered The Same God We Do In Our Christian Mysticism?

The Gospel Is Not About... Pie-in-the-sky When They Die. ... It Is Imperative That The Up And Coming Generation Recognize That The Biblical Jesus Was Committed To The Realization Of A New Social Order In This World.... Becoming A Christian, Therefore, Is A Call To Social Action.

Sigmund Freud Was The Apostle Of Disbelief. He Was The One Who Made Psychoanalysis A Part Of Our Culture, And In So Doing He Kicked Out A Flying Buttress That Had Been Essential For Holding Up Our Cathedral Of Faith.

Furthermore, Consider That As One Of Its Most Important Purposes, Stewardship Of Creation Should Sustain Nature's Worshiping Capacity. The More I Reflect On Scriptures And The More I Sense How God Thrills To The Adoration He Receives From All That He Has Created, The More I Realize He Has Given Us The Awesome Responsibility Of Caring For His Creation So That It Can Go On Praising Him Until The End Of Time.

In Religious Circles, Depression Is Often Deemed To Be A Spiritual Condition That Can Be Cured With Prayer.

When In Fact We Live In A Society That Makes Life Hell For Gays And Lesbians, This Community Has Got To Stand Up And Say, ‘we’re On Your Side As You Struggle For Dignity,’ And, ‘yes, We Will Defy Anybody Who Says Otherwise, Even If We Have To Go To Disneyland To Prove It.’

That A New Humanity Will Be Brought Forth From This Christ Consciousness In Each Person.

Christ Consciousness

It Is Hard To Say What The Future Holds, But This Is Probable - It Won't Be Just Like The Past.

Evangelicals Need To Take A Good Look At What Their Issues Are. Are They Really Being Faithful To Jesus? Are They Being Faithful To The Bible?

There Are 2,000 Verses Of Scripture That Tell Us We Must Be Committed To Protecting The Poor And The Oppressed... There Is No Concern Of Scripture That Is Addressed So Often And So Powerfully As Reaching Out To The Poor.

Nowhere In The Hebrew Scriptures Does It Say That God Is Omnipotent.

A Christian School Should Be A Place Where Young Men And Young Women Go Through A Period Of Spiritual Formation And Development So That They Come Out Incredibly More Proficient At Living Out Their Calling Than They Would Have Been Had They Not Gone To School.

Haitians Do Not Need Development Programs Imposed On Them By Expatriates. Instead, They Need Help In Developing As Self-assured Persons.

One Of The Problems With Evangelicalism Is That It Has Allowed Itself To Be Married To The Republican Party... Jesus Is Not A Republican. Nor Is He A Democrat.

Jesus Is The Only Savior, But Not Everybody Who Is Saved By Him Is Aware That He Is The One Who Is Doing The Saving.

I Think It Goes Back To The Fact That The Evangelical Community Often Does Not Have A Biblical Vision Of God.

Conservatives Are People Who Worship At The Graves Of Dead Radicals. Stop To Think About That. The People Who Started This Country, George Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, These Were Not Conservatives; These Were The Radicals Of The Time. In Fact, Conservatives Always Look Back On People Who They Despised And Make Them Into Heroes. If You Were To Listen To The Religious Right Today, They Would Make You Believe That Martin Luther King Was One Of Their Flock. In Reality, They Hated Him And Did Everything They Could To Destroy Him.

Rituals Keep Us From Forgetting What Must Not Be Forgotten And Keep Us Rooted In A Past From Which We Must Not Be Disconnected.

As We Consider The Causes Of Depression, Those Of Us In The Church Must Face The Ways We Might Be Responsible For Creating It.

In Baptism, New Christians Become Part Of A Body Of Fellow Believers Who Are Called To Spiritually Encourage One Another And Hold One Another Responsible For Consistent Christian Living.

Most Of My Fundamentalist Brothers And Sisters - And I Am An Evangelical, So I Can Say Most Of My Fundamentalist Brothers And Sisters - Are Quite Willing To Pack Women Off And Send Them As Missionaries To Dangerous Places Where They Might Get Killed.

Young Evangelicals, Especially, Are Breaking Ranks With Older Evangelicals (over 40) And Are More And More Leaning Towards Voting Democratic.

When You Listen To Christian Radio Stations - And There Are Thousands Of Them Now In The United States - And When You Listen To Christian Television Networks - And There Are Thousands Of Christian Television Shows Across The Country - They Are All Politically Right.

Artists Are The Best Theologians. They Feel Things That Are True Before Theologians Can Jargonize Them Into Obscurity.

Women Have The Same Privileges And Opportunities As Men, Given The New Testament.

I Am Looking For Suggestions On What We Can Do About Extremists Within Our Own Society. They Cannot Be Ignored.

Because I Am Not Yet Living Up To What Jesus Expects Me To Be In Those Red Letters In The Bible, I Always Define Myself As Somebody Who Is Saved By God's Grace And Is On His Way To Becoming A Christian. (...) Being Saved Is Trusting In What Christ Did For Us, But Being Christian Is Dependent On The Way We Respond To What He Did For Us.

But I Think It's Up To A Local Congregation To Determine Whether Or Not A Marriage Should Be Blessed Of God. And It Shouldn't Be Up To The Government.

When You Were Born, You Cried And Everybody Else Was Happy. The Only Question That Matters Is This - When You Die, Will You Be Happy When Everybody Else Is Crying?

Even If There Were No Heaven And There Were No Hell, Would You Still Follow Jesus? Would You Follow Him For The Life, Joy And Fulfilment He Gives You Right Now?

Those Issues Are Biblical Issues: To Care For The Sick, To Feed The Hungry, To Stand Up For The Oppressed. I Contend That If The Evangelical Community Became More Biblical, Everything Would Change.

Jesus Never Says To The Poor: ‘come Find The Church’, But He Says To Those Of Us In The Church: ‘go Into The World And Find The Poor, Hungry, Homeless, Imprisoned.

One Of The Most Startling Discoveries Of My Life Was The Realization That The Jesus That I Love, The Jesus Who Died For Me On Calvary, That Jesus, Is Waiting, Mystically And Wonderfully, In Every Person I Meet. I Find Jesus Everywhere.

Evangelical Christians, Who Once Were A Ridiculed Irrelevant Sectarian Movement, Have, Over Just Three Decades, Become A Powerful Voting Bloc That Can No Longer Be Ignored.

A Career Public Speaker Is Not What I'm Called To Be. I'm Called To Be A Critic.

If Four Years Of University Can Increase Your Effectiveness Of What You Can Do For Others In The Name Of Christ, It Is The Best Investment That You Can Make. But If The Education Is Simply To Get A Job To Make A Lot Of Money, You Have To Raise The Question Of Why You're Doing It.

I Do Not Mean That Others Represent Jesus For Us. I Mean That Jesus Actually Is Present In Each Other Person

Red Letter Christians Believe In The Doctrines Of The Apostle's Creed, Are Convinced That The Scriptures Have Been Inspired By The Holy Spirit, And Make Having A Personal Transforming Relationship With The Resurrected Christ The Touchtone Of Their Faith.

My Theology Is Such That The God Who Loves Israel And Will Not Forsake Israel - Which Is Why I Want To See Israel Have A Secure Nation With Secure Borders - Also Loves The Palestinians.

The Reason Why I Buy Into The Democratic Party More Than The Republican Party Is Because There Are Over 2,000 Verses Of Scripture That Deal With Responding To The Needs Of The Poor.

Clinton's Successor In The White House, George W. Bush, Was Committed To Expanding Government Spending For Faith-based Initiatives.

The First Reason For The Preponderant Influence Of Those Evangelicals Who Define Themselves As Advocates Of Religious Right Theological And Political Ideologies Is That They Have Both The Financial Means And Technological Know-how To Make Widespread Use Of Modern Electronic Forms Of Communication.

If America Is Too Arrogant, Too Prideful To Repent, It's Not The Kind Of Country That God Wants It To Be.

The Kingdom Of God Is A Glorious And Gigantic Party!

When Leading Evangelicals Say Terrible Things About Islam, Evil Things About Islam, Terrible Things About Muhammad, They Ought To Be Ashamed Of Themselves.

Christianity Isn't The Only Group That Has Fundamentalists.

If Fulfillment Is Gained Through Giving Ourselves Through Intimate Relationships, Then Allowing Ourselves To Be Consumed With The Cares Of Things, Instead Of The Care Of Persons, Is Foolish.

Intimate Relationships

Whenever There Is A Catastrophe, Some Religious People Inevitably Ask, 'why Didn't God Do Something? Where Was God When All Those People Died?'

In America, Evangelical Churches Have Often Been Bastions Of Conservatism, Providing Support For The Status Quo.

I Am Not Suggesting That All Those Missionary Organizations Working In Haiti Should Pack Up And Go Home, But I Am Urging Them To Understand That Haiti Does Not Need Clever Americans With Newly Contrived Schemes For Saving Their Country.

After-school Tutoring Programs, Care For The Elderly, Shelters For The Homeless, Disaster Relief Work, And A Variety Of Other Services Would All Benefit From Government Funding.

Sadly, We Do A Much Better Job Of Making People Feel Guilty Than We Do Of Delivering Them From The Guilt We Create. We Need To Confess This And Change Our Ways.

Most Evangelicals Claim To Be Politically Non-partisan, And Say They Only Identify With The Republican Party Because The Republicans Are Committed To 'family Values.

Grandchildren Are God's Reward For Not Killing Your Kids.

I Contend That It's Impossible To Read The Sermon On The Mount And Not Come Out Against Capital Punishment.

I've Always Been Skeptical Of Those Television Healers Who Are Bald. If I Had That Gift, That'd Be The First Thing I'd Fix.

Let Us Preach Christ, Let Us Be Faithful To Proclaiming The Gospel, But Let's Leave Judgment In The Hands Of God.

Flipping The Dial Through Available Radio Stations There Will Blare Out To Any Listener An Array Of Broadcasts, 24/7, Propagating Religious Right Politics, Along With What They Deem To Be “old-time Gospel Preaching.” This Is Especially True Of What Comes Over The Airwaves In Bible Belt Southern States.

I Think There Are Other Issues That The Democrats Could Use To Rally Evangelicals. There Are A Lot Of Us, For Instance, Who Believe That The Bible Calls Us To Be Environmentally Responsible.

I'm Not Convinced That Jesus Only Lives In Christians.

Of The 22 Industrialized Nations Of The World, We're Dead Last In Per Capita Giving To Poor People.

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