I think most evangelicals are biblically illiterate, incapable of reading scripture outside their reductionist gospel, and guilty of idolatry. Specifically, nationalism, militarism, ethnocentric moralism and materialism.
The populist christianity of evangelicalism is ill prepared for history's rush towards violence. As N.T. Wright has said, the problem in American Christianity is Idolatry.
In my own life I have attempted to communicate the oncoming end of an idolatrous people who use scripture to buttress their idolatry. I was born into evangelicalism and can only weep over the good that will be lost if we do not turn from this idolatry. We must search the scriptures with a heart and intellect that longs for hearing God. We have lost the voice of God to idols.
I think sharing the gospel (not your twelve steps or your four spiritual laws) as the coming of God in Jesus Christ and the birthing of the reign of God in the hearts of man is imperative if one knows the truth. Imperative because of love for God and humanity; no other reason.
At the heart of populist evangelicalism is a bibliolatry that has no bounds. Discerning the voice of God in scripture is more than quoting the verses that suit your idolatry.
The evangelical imagination is lost to endless end time scenarios that plague God's will to heal the world. When your religion promotes violence it is useless, ready for the pit.
We've been killing one another since the beginning. Our leaders cannot imagine solutions that seek peace without decimating the landscape with death.
The world needs the good news of the coming of God in Christ Jesus; but why should they believe children of empire who forgot their basic Sunday School lessons?
Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white they are precious in his site. Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Are we not all God's children? Does God love only Americans? Does God love only evangelicals? Does God love only the 'saved'? Is fear of Hell the clarion cry of God's good news?
Personally, I often feel ill at what passes for Christianity. I am not a saint or a prophet, only a believer whose faith is in Jesus Christ the Lord.
