On Politics: SOME Evangelicals get it!

Harold Netland, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies at my alta mater, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote a letter to the editors of Christianity Today that appeared in the September 2005. It was a response to CT’s editorial in the July issue, "Worship as Higher Politics." Netland’s insights come from years as a missionary to Japan and his extensive research that has brought us such thoughtful books as Dissonant Voices: Religious Pluralism and the Question of Truth and Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith.

Here’s what he had to say:

I have become increasingly alarmed at the uncritical nationalism of American evangelicalism and the Christian Right’s infatuation with power politics. We expect Christians in other nations to honor the lordship of Jesus Christ over national, social, cultural, or political loyalties. They rightly expect us to do the same. More important, Christ demands that we do so. The integrity of Christian witness globally is compromised by the fatuous identification of the Christian faith with American nationalism and a particular political agenda.

Yes, some evangelicals seem to get it!

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