Evangelical Identity
Because of my current writing project [updated] (Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World), I notice when issues of Christian identity arise. Three that relate especially to Evangelicalism caught my eye in the last twenty-four hours.
Geoff Tunnicliffe represents, in my view, a hopeful and healthy direction for Evangelical Christian identity. In this brief CNN clip, you’ll see him standing up for the rights of Evangelicals in Muslim-majority countries – and emphasizing the importance for Evangelicals to sit at the table of responsible multi-faith relationships and conversation.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/09/15/ctw-anderson-911-religion-debate.cnn
This piece by Graeme Codrington points in a similarly wise direction:
http://www.futurechurchnow.com/2011/09/19/marching-against-religious-intolerance-marching-against-me/
But then this piece by a young woman named Libby Anne points to a different wing of Evangelicalism, and ends with a powerful (implied) challenge for moderate Evangelicals to set a different course.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152393/my_life_as_a_daughter_in_the_christian_patriarchy_movement_–_how_i_was_taught_to_obey_men,_birth_8_kids_and_do_battle_against_secular_america?page=entire
Quotable:
One last point to make is that evangelicals believe essentially the same things as the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, they just don’t take it to the same extreme. Evangelicals believe that husbands are to to be their wives’ spiritual heads, but in practice their marriages are generally fairly egalitarian. Evangelicals believe that children are a blessing, but in moderation. Evangelicals believe that children should receive a godly education, but most of them send their children to public schools. Evangelicals believe that adult unmarried daughters should honor their parents and listen to their advice, but they don’t expect them to always obey it. Evangelicals believe that men and women are different, and that children need their mothers at home, but most evangelical women work outside the home. Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull simply take these beliefs to their natural – and radical – conclusions.