Do Evangelicals Have an Image Problem?

It has been a couple of weeks since I have last post. Things have been a little crazy but we have still been meeting the last two sundays and have had unique experiences. Two sundays ago we one college student, two international students, and two high school students. I did a lot of drawing and we learned a bit about China and talked about American Culture. I did a lot of drawing on a whiteboard. Last Sunday we got to Chapter 3 and had a few visitors. We were joined by our international students again, before they returned to China. We had are usuals and some high school students. In regards to chapter 3, this is what it was like...

First I wanted to address a couple of things that we didn't have time for last time. Last time we ended talking about Other Ethnic Evangelicals. Since being one of the "other ethnic evangelics" I decided to share my perspective. I opened up the discussion with the idea of "white man's religion." Since the inception of this country there has been awareness of oppressive elements by ethnic minorities. During the 50's and 60's when the civil rights movement went into full swing, several groups decided to "sock to the man." In socking to the man, the man represents white, male, protestant, holders of power. Since then, as some people of color have coupled oppression plus education of our nation's past, many may be apprehensive to a "White Jesus." This why we may see a number of African Americans turn to Islam or other minorities be weary of a Christian right. In the end of the chapter it also spoke on how other-than-white Christians may differ politically speaking of how there are a sizable number of African-American Christians who are also Democrats because of the party's focus on social issues. This is why many felt it was important during the last presidential election, that it be made clear that Christians are not monolithic politically.
Lastly, since Evangelicals have/are sharing the gospel with Asian, Latin American, and African countries there has seem to be a duplicating of the missionaries' convictions, ie in my familial/Christian culture, no smoking, no drinking, no tattoos. I think Campolo put it best in chapter 2, when he said, "It has been said that Christianity started in Israel; was exported to Greece, where it was made into a philosophy; taken to Rome, where it was made into an organization; sent to Europe, where it was made into a culture; and finally to America, where evangelicals made it into a business empire. Ultimately as a person of color and faith forgiveness and grace comes into play. Two books that are helpful are "Being Latino in Christ" and "White Man's Gospel." Essentially we discussed that Christianity is truley an Eastern Religion that made it accross the pond via the Europeans.

We then continued with Chapter 3. I read aloud the scenario that Campolo put forth comparing Evangelicals and Jesus. We focused on the response one person makes in the scenario regrading Evangelicals by saying that words like "'bigot', 'homophobe,' 'male chauvinist,' and reactionary.'" We discussed the question I posed, "Is the world out to get us like some may say?" We had various reposnses. I asked "why do you think the person in the scenario respond the way they did?"I also introduced the idea of the"player hater." In the hip-hop world, a "player hater" is someone who criticizes out of jealousy, contempt, or sheer criticism. So I asked from the pulpit, who are the alleged "player haters" of Christianity? The groups of ethnic minorities, gay folksm and feminists could typlically pointed out as Evangelicals' "player haters." We explored what potentially puts Evangelicals and these groups (ethnic minorities, gay folks, and feminists) at odds. We explored differences but also commonalities between these groups and evangelicals. This is where we ended and we will be continuing the rest of chapter 3 and all of chapter 4 the 27th. This Sunday we will take a break from the book to hear from Jeremy. Have a good week...and don't be a player hater.