Home
Campolo: Indifference Finds No Favor with God
By Bob Smietana
CHICAGO, IL (October 12, 2001) - On a broadcast of Pat Robertson's The 700 Club following the terrorist attacks September 11, evangelical leader Jerry Falwell blamed the attacks on liberal elements in American society. Those elements had angered God, according to Falwell, and so God allowed the terrorist attacks.
Those comments received widespread criticism and within days Falwell apologized. As he listened to Falwell's critics, Tony Campolo says he felt bad for Falwell.
"Not to get Jerry Falwell off the hook," said Campolo, "but many of us have said things that are pretty close to what Jerry Falwell has said. I have said that unless America repents of its affluence, unless it turns from its indifference to the poor and the needy, unless America wakes up to the fact that it cannot allow half of the world to starve to death while it, in fact, lives a spoiled, decadent life - there will be a judgment on this nation."
Campolo was at North Park University Tuesday to talk about what it means for Christians to love our neighbors in the midst of the current national crisis. He said that Americans refuse to "believe in a God that is up there saying, 'See, I told you if you didn't straighten out I was going to punish you.'"
"They just don't buy that," Campolo continued. "And for that matter, to even suggest that God did this, that God caused it to happen, I think the American people were saying when this happened, God was the first one to cry, that God comes with great sympathy and love in this situation."
Still, Campolo admitted, he has made a number of statements about God's anger at American's indifference to the world around them. He said that he just had better timing than Falwell. "I think that my message was the same," said Campolo. "A nation that lives with indifference to the poor does not find favor with God. A nation that is indifferent to the sufferings of the oppressed when it could do something about it does not [find favor with God.]"
In his sermon at the university chapel and during a luncheon forum, Campolo urged students to work for justice and peace, two hallmarks of the kingdom of God. His remarks were even more poignant as they were delivered while United States military forces were attacking Afghanistan.
"I don't know what's going on in Afghanistan, but I don't see any good coming from it," Campolo said during the forum. "If you do, you are more optimistic than I am. I think violence breeds violence . . . I don't know how to stop Osama bin Laden, but I do know how to address injustice. I do know how to work for peace."
Campolo urged students to consider becoming entrepreneurs for the kingdom of God by learning how to help people in the third world start small businesses and cottage industries so that they can support themselves. He shared the story of a young man from Australia who started a group called Opportunities International. That young man's efforts have created 2.5 million new jobs in the third world, said Campolo. Since the average third world family has six members, said Campolo, those jobs have helped 15 million people.
When a student asked Campolo about getting involved in politics, he told the student to get involved in economics instead. "We like to think that power resides in political circles," Campolo said, "but I am convinced that real power resides in economic interests." He then used a few examples to illustrate that point. The Gulf War, said Campolo, was fought as much to protect American oil interests as much as it was fought to free Kuwait. In Liberia, whose main export is rubber, all of the refining is done by one company - Goodyear of Akron, Ohio.
"Goodyear owns 90 percent of the Liberian economy," said Campolo, "so who makes the decisions that affect the lives of people in Liberia - those in the Liberian Parliament, or those in the Goodyear boardroom in Akron, Ohio?
Campolo also pointed out that the decisions that affect prices for farmers around the world are made at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, just a few miles from North Park's campus. "I don't think that Marx was wrong," said Campolo, "when he said that whoever controls economic power controls the destiny of a country."
Like any Campolo speech, the luncheon session was filled with humor, as well as a call for social action. He commented on the current use of praise music in many churches saying, "If I get to heaven and they have an overhead projector - I am checking out." And he used his humor as a teaching tool. He noted the growing practice of youth groups that collect toys and food and distribute them at the holidays. That is a good idea, said Campolo, but it is often embarrassing for people in need to accept charity. Instead, the groups should take Jesus' advice and do their good works in secret. "Leave the toys on the back steps," he said, "then leave and call them on the phone. Tell them, 'There's stuff on the back porch and it's for you. This is God calling,' and then hang up."
There were also a few surprises in the speech. When students asked Campolo for recommendations for places to get accurate news, he recommended Sojourners and Tikkun, both magazines with a more liberal, social action bent. He also recommended that they read The Wall Street Journal. "People don't mind being lied to except when it comes to massive investment," said Campolo, noting that the Journal was the first major U.S. newspaper to oppose the war in Vietnam. "Go to The Wall Street Journal - they can't afford to lie."
At the heart of the Campolo's remarks was a concern that Christians reflect both the personal and societal implications of the gospel. Liberals, he said, have been concerned about social justice, but forgot that people need to be converted. Evangelicals, he said, think, "If we win enough people to Jesus, then the world will be a better place."
"That's not exactly true," said Campolo. "Just look at the American South. There were more born again in the South than in any other place in America, and yet racism and segregation continued. We are not going to sacrifice one part of the gospel for the other. Individuals need to be saved and social structures need to be changed."
In his closing remarks, Campolo urged students to learn more about their Muslim neighbors, both in the U.S. and around the world. He praised North Park's efforts to reach out to the local Islamic community and quoted Mark Twain's comments on tolerance: "I am tolerant not because I do not have strong beliefs, but because I know the limits of my knowledge."
"You don't have to water down your beliefs," said Campolo. "You do have to know the limits of your knowledge."
He also criticized Islamic countries that do not allow freedom of religion, saying that the world needs an open market of religious expression. "I would say to my Muslim brothers and sisters, 'If you feel compelled by your prophet to convert the world to Islam, you should understand that Christians want to convert the world to Jesus Christ.'"
Then, Campolo pointed out that many Muslims have a valid complaint when they say that Christians know nothing about the Islamic community. "They can say to us, 'we were not important enough for you to take the time to understand us. There are one billion of us and we didn't count, '" said Campolo. "But by God's grace it's not going to be that way in the future."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
