Faith in Public Life.org reprints an article from Zack Exley at In These Times (please read the entire article) on a growing movement - one of which I was only dimly aware - of radical, indeed "revolutionary" evangelicalism. For our purposes, I wish to highlight the following paragraph from Exley's article:
Could the shift in focus from personal salvation to the building of the "kingdom of Heaven" be the inevitable result of the long rise of "back to the Bible" fundamentalism? Tens of millions of American Christians are not only reading the Bible, but getting together in groups and studying it -- studying the historical context in which the authors wrote, the nuances of the original Greek and Hebrew, and the issues raised by translation and conflicting source texts.
Isn't it fascinating that actually reading the Bible leads people to understand "values" in completely novel ways? Isn't it interesting that "leaders" are upset with these groups who actually read the Bible and come to different conclusions? Thus the dangers of letting people read the Bible, rather than just listening to sermons by people who claim authority to tell them what's in the Bible, a lesson these "leaders" might have remembered had they known the history of the Reformation . . .
I do not know enough about this movement, its teachings, or its variants, to judge it competently, but, like the rising Green awareness among evangelicals, it shows that the Evangelical movement in the US is not about theocracy, or anti-intellectualism, but at its best, is inclusive, radical in its demands (in the best sense of the word), and offers adherents a way to live their faith life in a way that is for others rather than against medical procedures or loving commitments. I do believe this needs more looking into. . .
