The Evangelical Crackup

Yesterday i went to watch the film "Jesus Camp". And I was very much impressed of the political content of it. It's already known that most US Evangelicals are skewed to the right in politics, but it was shocking to see how can they exaggerate and become non-biblical in their practices. When they brought a body size image of the US President to a prayer meeting, i felt like the times when people had to worship the images of the Roman Emperors! The sad part is that the label -and its implications- affects to all of us outside the US, who are proudly spiritual descendants of the Reformation.

However, there seems to be hope. In a New York Times article, the authors discuss objectively the shortcomings of the Christian right, and at the same time highlight that the younger generation of leaders are taking things with a renewed and probably more biblical approach. The following extract exemplifies the former statement:

Meanwhile, a younger generation of evangelical pastors — including the widely emulated preachers Rick Warren and Bill Hybels — are pushing the movement and its theology in new directions. There are many related ways to characterize the split: a push to better this world as well as save eternal souls; a focus on the spiritual growth that follows conversion rather than the yes-or-no moment of salvation; a renewed attention to Jesus’ teachings about social justice as well as about personal or sexual morality. However conceived, though, the result is a new interest in public policies that address problems of peace, health and poverty — problems, unlike abortion and same-sex marriage, where left and right compete to present the best answers.