Nomad, Christian Community, Mission and the Future of the Church.

Hello and welcome to Nomad podcast, a show documenting the journey of five friends living in Nottingham

in the United Kingdom as they explore issues to do with community and church. On this month's

show, we chat to Tony Campolo about evangelism and social action. There's the usual chat from us

and your emails.

Okay, I guess this month is Tony Campolo. Now, Tony Campolo is an ordained minister, an internationally known evangelist and an author of some 35 books. He's also Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University near Philadelphia. If you still don't know who I'm talking about, he's also the guy

who taught Shane Claiborne. So Tony Campolo, welcome to Nomad Podcast. Thank you for having me on your

show. Absolutely pleasure. I wonder if we could begin by talking a little bit about the connection

between evangelical faith and social action. Now, I think it's true to say that traditionally

there's been a distinction between evangelical's emphasis on personal faith in Jesus and a more

liberal emphasis on a commitment to social action. Do you think that that is true

and why? Well, it is true for the middle part of the 20th century. And if you go back to the

19th century, you will find that it was just a reverse.

Back in the 19th century, in the 1840s, 50, 60s,

the evangelical community was at the forefront of progressive social justice.

Here in the United States, it was evangelicals that led the fight against slavery.

As a matter of fact, the evangelicals under the leadership of Charles Finney were the promoters of the feminist movement here in the United States. The early movements for women's suffrage and for social justice on behalf of women, led by evangelicals.

Now, there's been a complete flip-flop in which evangelicals move from being progressively

to the left of center, to being very, very much to the religious right.

And this is a sad thing because we need a gospel that covers both personal evangelism

and social justice. Jesus came to create a world in which transformed people would live

in a transformed society. Any message of Christianity that does not talk about both of those things, transform

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