Listen to Tony Campolo online!

I enjoyed him in the 80's but hasn't he gone liberal?

 

Yes he has.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Gone Liberal????

 

I think "Liberal" is a little strong. He's definitely a Moderate and definitely Evangelical. He's less conservative than I am, but he has a very significant ministry. I think we need people like Campolo who challenge us around social issues. This link speaks to some of people's concerns:

http://www.truthwatch.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=102

 

Tony has a ministry for poor kids in Camden, NJ. I try to see him once a year at Ocean Grove, a former Methodist campground which has speakers like James Kennedy and Norman Vincent Peale. He had a stroke about two years ago but is still one of the most dynamic preachers I've ever heard.

 

Norman Vincent Peale once asked an Evangelical Baptist what Evangelical Baptists thought of him.

Well, he was told, Evangelical Baptists find Paul appealing and Peale appalling.

 

I agree with you, Ben. He is sometimes misunderstood because he is transparent and a little provocative at times. It seems to me, Jesus was provocative at times, as well.

 

I've got a lot of time for him and have several of his books.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Tony Campolo is great. Have heard him speak in person. Two thumbs up!

 

Campolo is a featherweight. Although he is an apostle of the wannabe intellectuals, he has little Biblical insight or original thoughts. He offers the standard PC pabulum in evangelical sauce. Tony is an aging Christian hippy who lost his hair. He has never moved beyond the 60’s-70’s mentality of a flower child. He is entertaining and funny but he lacks substance. To some, he is considered intellectual because he spouts the customary liberal clichés. I doubt if he has ever had an original thought even though he does dress up the ordinary liberal line. He’s funny but I don’t take a funny guy seriously.

At best, Tony is a Neo-evangelical; at worse, he is a liberal depending on your definition of liberal. He is an imposter who masquerades as an intellectual and acquires a following of the gullible. Two thumbs down!

 

What I would like to know is why a supposedly straighshooter such as James Kennedy appears in a place with the likes of Tony Campolo and Norman Vincent Peale?

 

I agree with the assessment of Peale. He preached a "prosperity gospel" that I don't go along with. So does Rev. Schuler. I didn't agree with the "Prayer of Jabez" emphasis a couple of years ago for the same reason. God never told Christians that they would be rich or have an eary life. However, Tony Campolo is the real thing and a great man of god.

 

You're totally incorrect about these folks. While, imo, they lack much core doctrine in their preaching that is essential to the Gospel of Salvation, they're definitely not prosperity Gospel.

I agree there. Although, as pointed out by other posters here, his methodology is geared more towards past generations. But I don't think that negates his mission.

 

Campolo is a featherweight. Although he is an apostle of the wannabe intellectuals, he has little Biblical insight or original thoughts. He offers the standard PC pabulum in evangelical sauce. Tony is an aging Christian hippy who lost his hair. He has never moved beyond the 60’s-70’s mentality of a flower child. He is entertaining and funny but he lacks substance. To some, he is considered intellectual because he spouts the customary liberal clichés. I doubt if he has ever had an original thought even though he does dress up the ordinary liberal line. He’s funny but I don’t take a funny guy seriously.

At best, Tony is a Neo-evangelical; at worse, he is a liberal depending on your definition of liberal. He is an imposter who masquerades as an intellectual and acquires a following of the gullible. Two thumbs down! </font>[/QUOTE]If I had more than two thumbs, I'd put them all down regarding your post. I have heard Campolo on numerous occasions and your words could not be farther from the truth. Insulting is the only word that describes your words here.

Bottom line with a lot of independent fundamental types like you is you don't care about social justice, A MAJOR BIBLICAL THEME. If you did you would be grateful for the Campolo's. Ron Syders and others out of Eastern Baptist in St. David's Pennsylvania. Campolo is no lightweight, and absolutely everything I have ever heard him say personally or in writing is solidly based in scripture, particularly the prophets and the teachings of Jesus.

But your absurd post has me at least wanting to ask you to justify it by telling us what it is about Campolo that gives you reason to slander him so. Got a problem with social justice? Feeding the hungry? Clothing the naked? Challenging corporate greed? Biblical stuff like that?

Dave

 

Campolo is a man of God who demands that we put Jesus' command to love one another into action. It's sad that some here feel threatened by that...

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Campolo is a featherweight. Although he is an apostle of the wannabe intellectuals, he has little Biblical insight or original thoughts. He offers the standard PC pabulum in evangelical sauce. Tony is an aging Christian hippy who lost his hair. He has never moved beyond the 60’s-70’s mentality of a flower child. He is entertaining and funny but he lacks substance. To some, he is considered intellectual because he spouts the customary liberal clichés. I doubt if he has ever had an original thought even though he does dress up the ordinary liberal line. He’s funny but I don’t take a funny guy seriously.

At best, Tony is a Neo-evangelical; at worse, he is a liberal depending on your definition of liberal. He is an imposter who masquerades as an intellectual and acquires a following of the gullible. Two thumbs down! </font>[/QUOTE]If I had more than two thumbs, I'd put them all down regarding your post. I have heard Campolo on numerous occasions and your words could not be farther from the truth. Insulting is the only word that describes your words here.
Bottom line with a lot of independent fundamental types like you is you don't care about social justice, A MAJOR BIBLICAL THEME. If you did you would be grateful for the Campolo's. Ron Syders and others out of Eastern Baptist in St. David's Pennsylvania. Campolo is no lightweight, and absolutely everything I have ever heard him say personally or in writing is solidly based in scripture, particularly the prophets and the teachings of Jesus.
</font>[/QUOTE]The problem with what you say is that it’s all wrong. Don’t you think that Campolo and Sider have nice, tidy little salaries, benefits and perks at Eastern? Also, their book royalties give a cozy little cushion. I don’t see these guys working in a rescue mission for room and board, caring for children in a children’s home for R & B at a $55/week salary, working with drunks and druggies without salary, etc. I wonder if they would send their grocery money to buy a stethoscope for a native doctor in Ecuador? Would they give $100, that was given to them as a Christmas gift, to a poor family for child with a broken arm to receive medical attention? Real caring about people comes through personal sacrifice.

The problem that I have the caring professed by the PC crowd is that caring is an illusion. It’s easy to spout sentimental clichés and blubber all over creation if it doesn’t cost you anything. The liberals are very caring as long as it’s with someone else’s money. However, they have never embraced caring to the point of personal sacrifice. Let them do some real good by giving of themselves and their lives. And, I am not talking about token gestures but real self-denial and personal sacrifice for the benefit of others. IMHO, Campolo and Sider are long on talk and short on performance. Let them put their money where their mouth is. After all, they have handsomely benefited from their public positions and advocacy. It is rather like the situation with the western Indians. The average Indian family income is much less than the $18,000 annual expenditure per family that the government spends. Who benefits? Not the Indians! It’s all the social workers, program administrators, and advocates who are supposedly helping the Indians. Yes, the caring industry is pretty lucrative! Along the same lines, Campolo and Sider benefit greatly from their caring through the sale of books, speaking engagements and a cushiony professorship at a liberal university.

You are dead WRONG in charging “Bottom line with a lot of independent fundamental types like you is you don't care about social justice, A MAJOR BIBLICAL THEME.” You just don’t know what you’re talking about! It exposes your ignorance. Yes, there are “Yuppie” Fundamentalists who are only concerned about their affluence but my circle of friends and I are not part of that crowd. Don’t make stereotypes!

Oh, I’m sure Tony or Ron give to charity, visit the jails and hospitals, and advocate everyone else doing so but what have they done more than others? Such actions are often compensatory behavior to salve the soul. Have they really given up anything? Pious talk is cheap! Action is what benefits the needy. Have they given up their comfortable careers and homes to serve the poor in destitute nations? I know many, many independent Fundamentalist Baptist missionaries who have. They do not advocate a social movement but they give of themselves and their possessions. By American standards, they have little but they share what they have with the destitute. You ought to read David Livingstone’s thoughts on sacrifice.

Since you confronted and accused me, allow me to challenge you. Are you, personally, willing to move to a lower standard of living and share what you have with the poor? If not, then don’t talk piously to me about the abstract caring of Campolo, Sider, and yourself. Caring or loving is not just a feeling, emotion, or sentiment—it is meeting the need.

1 John 3:16-18 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

James 2:15-16 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Finally, you don’t win arguments with adjectives and cliches. Everyone has a thesaurus and grammar checker with their word processor. Not everyone is lucid and rational though. Your argument lacked content and was a rather nasty personal attack. Of course, that is the standard method--attack the person when you can't refute his argument.

 

Who feels threatened? How do you know someone feels threaterned? Are you a psychic?

 

I actually know Tony a little.

First of all, I worked with him through working with the Creation Festival.

On top of that, my mother is a sociology professor at Widener University, while Tony is a professor at Eastern College, a couple of miles up the road, so I've gotten to know him further when they have worked on projects together.

I have some problems with some of his opinions and I do believe that he seriously damaged his credibility with the Bill Clinton debacle.

That having been said, I don't think you'll find many people who love the Lord more or are more serious about showing Christ's love, as they understand it, to others.