The Red Letter Christians Conference
By Charles Kiker,
Tulia, TX
Thanks to Christian Ethics Today for sponsoring the Christian ethics conference on the campus of Truett Seminary of Baylor
Alan Bean (Executive Director of Friends of Justice) and I attended the conference. Although Editor Joe Trull seemed to be pleased with the attendance, saying it was the best of the three sponsored so far by the Christian Ethics Today Foundation, I personally expected a higher attendance. The attendees were mostly older, with a smattering of Truett Seminary students. Truett faculty members were conspicuous by their absence. It was an ethics conference, and Truett currently has no ethics department, although reportedly they are in search for someone to teach ethics and missions.
The conference, while it seemed to lack a unifying theme, was advertised in the brochure as Red Letter Christians, An Emerging Evangelical Center, and Public Policy Issues. The brochure, and the list of presenters, enticed me to make the trip from Tulia to attend. I do not regret the time nor the expenditure.
James Dunn gave his characteristically enthusiastic and well informed presentations regarding church and state, and by extension, the place of religion in politics. Dunn is a vocal advocate of separation of church and state, but, he insists, that does not mean that evangelical Christians should not be involved in politics.
David Gushee, Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, was expected to represent the “emerging evangelical center.” This emerging group would avoid both the extremes of the Christian right, represented by such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell, and the so-called evangelical left represented by Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, and others. But Professor Gushee, in his presentation, seemed to be moving away from any evangelical center and toward radical Christianity.
And that brings us to “Red Letter Christians.” What a scary thought to political progressives who don’t know about red-letter editions of the Bible. To these folks “Red Letter Christians” in a red state at a Baptist University could conjure up visions of hate-mongering homophobes, doctor-murdering anti-abortionists, or other religio-politically crimson groups.
The term actually originated with a secularist talk show host who commented on certain Christians who pay special attention to the words of Jesus printed in red in some Bibles. Thus Tony Campolo proudly owns the appellation, and also gladly accepts the designation of radical evangelical. He is evangelical in his doctrine and espouses a high view of Scripture. Campolo related his experience of being tried for heresy by some theologians of the right. They could find no heresy in him. Their only complaint was that he takes the Bible too literally!
As a Baptist (and Tony is a fellow American Baptist), maybe I fault Tony just a tad for his emphasis on believing the Apostles Creed. I’m not taking issue with the statements of the creed, but reaffirming the traditional Baptist position that “we Baptists don’t need no creed!”
Campolo pleads guilty to insisting that the words of Jesus must be taken literally, while those on the religious right frequently do not look to the red letters. But to Campolo, “Love your enemies” really means to love your enemies! “Be merciful” really means to be merciful. This is radical Christianity. It stakes out a position and practice not between, but above and beyond the extremes of left and right.
Friends of Justice (http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com) seeks criminal justice reform. No presenter at this conference so much as mentioned this issue. I think the presenters and attendees would be very positive toward the Friends of Justice position if they were aware of the systemic gross injustice, especially toward the poor in the criminal justice system.
That’s why we were there: to plant seeds of awareness. Hopefully in the next Christian Ethics Today conference, those seeds will have sprouted and taken root.
Charles Kiker is a retired American Baptist minister who was instrumental in forming Friends of Justice in response to the infamous and now discredited Tulia Drug Sting.
