American sociologist and pastor (born 1935).
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Red Letter Christians believe in the doctrines of the Apostle's Creed, are convinced that the Scriptures have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, and make having a personal transforming relationship with the resurrected Christ the touchtone of their faith.Tony Campolo
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It is hard to say what the future holds, but this is probable - it won't be just like the past.Tony Campolo
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Most Evangelicals have the church to thank for the Sunday-school classes that taught us what the Bible says and paved the way for our eventual decisions to commit our lives to Christ.Tony Campolo
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An evangelical is somebody who, first of all, has a very high view of Scripture, believes it's an infallible message from God.Tony Campolo
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Prior to ROE V. WADE, abortions were common even though they were illegal. I don't think making them illegal again is going to solve the problem.Tony Campolo
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There is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to both men and women in the New Testament. This is what makes the New Testament a New Testament rather than the Old Testament, in which women did not have such privileges.Tony Campolo
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Perhaps we would do well to listen to the likes of Rabbi Harold Kushner, who contends that God is not really as powerful as we have claimed.Tony Campolo
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Certain things happened in the early church. Women who had never had any freedom suddenly have the ability to stand up and speak and be treated as equals within the life of the church.Tony Campolo
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In baptism, new Christians become part of a body of fellow believers who are called to spiritually encourage one another and hold one another responsible for consistent Christian living.Tony Campolo
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I am not suggesting that all those missionary organizations working in Haiti should pack up and go home, but I am urging them to understand that Haiti does not need clever Americans with newly contrived schemes for saving their country.Tony Campolo
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I contend that it's impossible to read the Sermon on the Mount and not come out against capital punishment.Tony Campolo
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The first reason for the preponderant influence of those Evangelicals who define themselves as advocates of Religious Right theological and political ideologies is that they have both the financial means and technological know-how to make widespread use of modern electronic forms of communication.Tony Campolo
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There is no doubt that religion had already waned under the onslaught of the Enlightenment, but it was Freud who provided the radically new understanding of human nature that made any religious explanation of the whats and whys of our personhood seem naive.Tony Campolo
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The traditional spokespersons for the Evangelicals, such as Chuck Colson and James Dobson, have become alarmed about this drift away from the 'Family Values' issues that they believe should be the overwhelming concerns of Evangelicals. They have expressed their displeasure in letters of protest circulated through the religious media.Tony Campolo
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Young Evangelicals, especially, are breaking ranks with older Evangelicals (over 40) and are more and more leaning towards voting Democratic.Tony Campolo
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When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?Tony Campolo
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Often, we ignore the fact that our spiritual condition and psychological state of mind are highly affected by what is happening to us physically. Sometimes depression is simply the result of exhaustion.Tony Campolo
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From the beginning, there have been some religious leaders who greeted the funding of faith-based social services by government with ambivalence.Tony Campolo
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We ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do.Tony Campolo
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Women have the same privileges and opportunities as men, given the New Testament. Relegating women to second-class citizenship was abolished when Jesus died on the cross.Tony Campolo
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Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.Tony Campolo
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What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.Tony Campolo
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If America is too arrogant, too prideful to repent, it's not the kind of country that God wants it to be.Tony Campolo
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To prevent discussion of any other explanations of human origins is hardly what I would expect from open-minded educators.Tony Campolo
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Through the ages, God has used the church to keep alive and pass down the story of what Christ has done for us.Tony Campolo
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Clinton's successor in the White House, George W. Bush, was committed to expanding government spending for faith-based initiatives.Tony Campolo
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The Gospel is about grace and we all know that grace is about us receiving from God blessings that we don't deserve.Tony Campolo
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While a case can be made for intelligent design, I can't figure out why some Christians are so thrilled about that possibility. First of all, it doesn't prove there's a God. If anything, intelligent design lends support to some form of pantheism that defines God as immanent within nature.Tony Campolo
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After-school tutoring programs, care for the elderly, shelters for the homeless, disaster relief work, and a variety of other services would all benefit from government funding.Tony Campolo
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I am relatively sure, from conversations that I had with former president Bill Clinton, that George Bush seldom called upon him for advice.Tony Campolo
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I am looking for suggestions on what we can do about extremists within our own society. They cannot be ignored.Tony Campolo
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President Bush once said that marriage is a sacred institution and should be reserved for the union of one man and one woman. If this is the case - and most Americans would agree with him on this - then I have to ask: Why is the government at all involved in marrying people?Tony Campolo
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I'm not denying that depression can be spiritually induced. Guilt from having wronged and hurt others can bring it on. A sense of having failed to live out the will of God can give rise to depression. Certainly the fear of death and what might follow can sap the joy out of life.Tony Campolo
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Let us preach Christ, let us be faithful to proclaiming the Gospel, but let's leave judgment in the hands of God.Tony Campolo
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If marriage really is a sacred institution, then why is the government controlling it, especially in a nation that affirms separation of church and state?Tony Campolo
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But I think it's up to a local congregation to determine whether or not a marriage should be blessed of God. And it shouldn't be up to the government.Tony Campolo
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Of the 22 industrialized nations of the world, we're dead last in per capita giving to poor people.Tony Campolo
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The Jesus of the Scripture transcends all nations and calls all nations into judgment.Tony Campolo
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Insofar as the church fails to do the will of God, I am called upon to help it discover and to do the will of God; and I am called upon to help the government to do the same.Tony Campolo
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The reason why I buy into the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party is because there are over 2,000 verses of Scripture that deal with responding to the needs of the poor.Tony Campolo
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I don't doubt that God can bring good out of tragedies, but the Bible is clear that God is not the author of evil!Tony Campolo
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Jesus is the only Savior, but not everybody who is saved by Him is aware that He is the one who is doing the saving.Tony Campolo
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When you talk about evangelicals, don't forget that a significant proportion of the evangelical community is African American. And most African Americans - well over 90 percent, thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly biblical - will probably vote Democratic.Tony Campolo
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Marriage should be viewed as an institution ordained by God and should be out of the control of the state.Tony Campolo
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A Christian school should be a place where young men and young women go through a period of spiritual formation and development so that they come out incredibly more proficient at living out their calling than they would have been had they not gone to school.Tony Campolo
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Freud taught us that it wasn't God that imposed judgment on us and made us feel guilty when we stepped out of line. Instead, it was the superego - that idealized concept of what a good person is supposed to be and do - given to us by our parents, that condemned us for what had been hitherto regarded as ungodly behavior.Tony Campolo
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I contend that Bush would be a lot more moderate if there weren't some fundamentalists breathing down his neck every time he wants to establish the state of Israel, every time he wants to do justice for the Palestinian people.Tony Campolo
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Often, we ignore the fact that our spiritual condition and psychological state of mind are highly affected by what is happening to us physically.Tony Campolo
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I don't know of many evangelicals who want to deny gay couples their legal rights. However, most of us don't want to call it marriage, because we think that word has religious connotations, and we're not ready to see it used in ways that offend us.Tony Campolo
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My theology is such that the God who loves Israel and will not forsake Israel - which is why I want to see Israel have a secure nation with secure borders - also loves the Palestinians.Tony Campolo
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