Politics

Millions of Evangelicals Did Not Vote for Trump – and I’m One of Them

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by Craig Keener. Originally published on his blog on Huffington Post, reposted with permission.

I have been saving for the right time my likely one good shot at the subject of non-Trump evangelicals, and it looks like now is a good moment. The publication of Stephen Mansfield’s Choosing Donald Trump, an attempt to explain why religious conservatives flocked to Donald Trump, seems like the right moment (see Mansfield). Like Mansfield, I am a non-Trump evangelical.

I thus get a little sensitive when people complain that “evangelicals,” as if a monolithic group, stand behind Trump. I seek to respect the office of president and love my neighbor, including presidents I disagree with. But I did not vote for Trump, yet theologically I am plainly evangelical.

Within evangelicalism, I undoubtedly live too sheltered a life. Polls show that of self-declared evangelicals who voted, 80 percent voted for Donald Trump, and it appears that most of them still support him.

Continue reading Millions of Evangelicals Did Not Vote for Trump – and I’m One of Them →

Economic Justice, Reviews

Is Pentecostalism Doing More for Africa’s Poor than International NGOs?

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Review originally published at the LSE Africa Blog. Reposted with permission.

Gregory Deacon of Oxford University says that the book Pentecostalism and Development: Churches, NGOs and Social Change in Africa (edited by Dena Freeman) provides some compelling answers regarding Pentecostalism and development.

With its noisy churches and high profile media presence, Pentecostalism is religion writ large and exciting. Dramatic claims are made – for example that it is ‘redrawing the religious map of the world’.[1] Dena Freeman’s edited volume tackles head on whether this is good or bad for development. This is done in the context of 30 years of neoliberalism and an explosion in numbers of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as Pentecostal churches. The role of both in alleviating poverty and improving living conditions for Africans is considered.

Over the past three decades, Pentecostal Christianity has exploded across Africa. At the same time many secular development agencies, including the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), have been struggling to incorporate religion and faith based organisations into their policies and processes. As a research fellow at the University of Oxford looking at religion and development, I have similarly found Pentecostalism impossible to ignore. Continue reading Is Pentecostalism Doing More for Africa’s Poor than International NGOs? →

Economic Justice

Christian TV Channel Claims that You Can Buy God’s Blessings

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The Norwegian channel Visjon Norge (Vision Norway) claimed that donations between 180 and 6,130 dollars would bring blessings from God, as a Nigerian pastor would pray different prayers depending on the amount of money people donated.

David Sagen. Screenshot from Visjon Norge.
David Sagen. Screenshot from Visjon Norge.

Verdens Gang reports that on October 15, David Sagen who regularly contributes to Visjon Norge explained why he two years ago started to give 2,500 kroner (430 US dollars) to the ministry of Nigerian pastor Bayo Oniwinde every month. Oniwinde had said that he would pray “Joseph’s blessing” over those who donated that amount.

– I told God, that Joseph’s blessing should come now, and really I was just happy that Joseph’s blessing was on its way. And that year, two years ago, many things happened in my business – and yeah, it went very well.

Continue reading Christian TV Channel Claims that You Can Buy God’s Blessings →

Creation Care

The Creator and the Created

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I was raised to love nature. My mother was always gardening and foraging. My father was always taking us hiking and teaching us about wildlife and the outdoors. My mother is now a certified herbalist. One of my brothers is a horticulturist at a renowned botanical garden in the southeast. My sister volunteers with animal rescues. And my husband and I have a little homestead of our own. Creation Care is deeply embedded in my family and our values.

For me, though, the passion I have for caring for nature and the creation around me goes beyond just having an appreciation for the beauty it holds. My passion comes from how fully and wonderfully creation declares the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How the vastness of creation is too much for our mortal minds to fully comprehend, and then to know that God is infinitely more vast than even that. To see the astonishing beauty around me and know that my Father did that is indescribable.

Continue reading The Creator and the Created →

History

‘The Cry of Slaughtered Millions’: William and Catherine Booth’s Aggressive Christianity

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Image: inspirationalchristians.org

William Booth preaching
Image: inspirationalchristians.org

William Booth (1829-1912), Founder-General of the Salvation Army, certainly favoured the ‘in your face’ approach. With these words he began the front page article of the first issue of The War Cry, on 27 December 1879: Why a “War Cry?” Because The Salvation Army means more war!”

Today, the Army’s ‘fight’ against poverty and marginalisation takes many forms, from questions in parliament to individuals giving a few pounds to a homeless charity. But Booth’s radical eye saw deeper than mere deprivation and squalor: he saw inner lostness, people without hope because God’s love was not made real to them. Some churches tried, but in the main, Christians ‘walked by on the other side’. Not so the Salvation Army!

Continue reading ‘The Cry of Slaughtered Millions’: William and Catherine Booth’s Aggressive Christianity →

Interviews, Nonviolence

Greg Boyd: How the Violent Portraits of God Can Point to the Cross

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Greg Boyd is a charismatic Anabaptist with a passion for theology, preaching, writing and playing the drums. He is the Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in S:t Paul, Minnesota, and has authored several best-selling books, including Letters from a Skeptic and The Myth of a Christian Nation.

His most recent books are Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision, both of which argue that we need to reshape our view of the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament. PCPJ managed to interview Boyd on

What have the main reactions been to the books?

So far the responses have been overwhelmingly positive.  Some of the testimonies I’ve received have been so awesome – and so humbling!  For example, I have had a number of people tell me that they felt like Crucifixion of the Warrior God (or Cross Vision, which is a popular version of the more academic Crucifixion of the Warrior God) finally set them free to fully trust that God is as beautiful as he’s revealed to be in the crucified Christ. Continue reading Greg Boyd: How the Violent Portraits of God Can Point to the Cross →

Gender Equality

The Toxic Church Culture that Causes Sexual Harassment – #MeToo

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by Katarina Viola Hedman.

A couple of years ago I was at a Christian conference. The speaker was a completely ordinary charismatic with a dramatic voice, a suit, some extra pounds and was – of course – a man. Nothing out of the ordinary. This man even made attempts at being funny. And judging by the reaction of the room, he succeeded. Only I couldn’t laugh.

Majority of his jokes were about women. About how little men understand these strange creatures and how awful mothers-in-law are, and so on. Again, no different than what we are exposed to daily. Not just in church. He delivered joke after joke as if the service was his personal little comedy gig. Like men often do. Continue reading The Toxic Church Culture that Causes Sexual Harassment – #MeToo →

Spirituality

Why Did Pentecostalism Merge With Fundamentalism?

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by Tony Richie. Part 2 of 3 (part 1). Read the whole article as a PDF here.

A Puzzling History

FrenchArrington
French Arrington

Pentecostal biblical scholar French Arrington details the popularization of dispensationalism by John Nelson Darby and by C. I. Scofield. Arrington describes dispensationalism as “an interpretive scheme grafted onto the traditional body of Christian doctrine.” He defines it more specifically as a “basic assumption that God deals with the human race in successive dispensations.” A dispensation is a period of time marked by a beginning, a test, and termination in judgment through human failure or sin.
 
Though dispensationalism has influenced Pentecostal theology, probably because of the avid attachment of both to eschatology, “the earliest Pentecostal teachings were not tied to directly to dispensationalism.” In Arrington’s opinion, the statements of faith of major Pentecostal denominations do “commit them to premillennialism but not necessarily to dispensationalism.” Continue reading Why Did Pentecostalism Merge With Fundamentalism? →

Nonviolence, Politics, Spirituality

A People Without a Temple: Pentecostals, Nonviolence and the Chilean-Mapuche Conflict

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by Elvis Castro Lagos.

On June 9, 2016, while a small Evangelical congregation in a rural area, about 2 miles from Temuco, La Araucanía, in Chile, was celebrating an evening service, a group of at least 5 people broke in, and shooting in the air with heavy guns drove the parishioners violently out of the building, proceeding to put it to fire. A note left in the site stated: “Christianity, accomplice of repression to Mapuche people”. It was the third evangelical temple burnt, but this case was special since the congregation (most of them Mapuche people) was in the building in the moment of the attack. The suspected perpetrators were imprisoned and are still being prosecuted. Up to this day, near 30 Catholic and Evangelical church buildings have been burnt in different rural sites in La Araucanía.

Continue reading A People Without a Temple: Pentecostals, Nonviolence and the Chilean-Mapuche Conflict →

Economic Justice, Spirituality

John Wimber: Social Justice Always Follows True Revival

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The following is an excerpt from former Vineyard leader and revivalist John Wimber’s book The Way In is The Way On.

I love to teach on social justice! It really is one of my passions. Justice always go hand in hand with true revival and renewal of the Spirit. Justice – setting things right for the poor and marginalized – is one of the primary purposes for God sending His Son into the world. He came in order to set things right. Great leaders in the history of the church have always understood the relationship between faith and justice. There has never been a movement of God started on fire that did not have a ministry to the poor. Continue reading John Wimber: Social Justice Always Follows True Revival →

Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice