May 22, 2007...5:37 pm
The New Evangelicals
This was a great article in the NY Times yesterday about the rise of the next generation of evangelical leaders in America. Taking the place of Falwell, Dobson, and Roberts are folks like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and others. For now, it seems like the new leaders of the evangelicals are the mega-church pastors. I wonder who it’s going to be in 20 years?
According to the article, the new breed of evangelicals is spending more time on issues like environmentalism and poverty, often to the dismay of the old guard. Most Christians my age could probably have told you this already. I’ve sensed a move towards these social issues for a couple of years now. A few years ago DATA was one of the first secular organizations I can remember that really reached out to Christians in the recruiting effort to help Africa.
In public opinion, however, it looks like abortion is still the rallying issue for most conservative Christians in the country.
I’m always interested in why certain issues, like abortion, get linked with morality more readily than do others, like poverty. I would argue they are both moral issues, although in different ways.
2 Comments
May 23, 2007 at 11:33 am
Want to hear something funny? Rick Warren is from Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA and Baby Bean was born at Saddleback Hospital in Orange County, CA.
May 30, 2007 at 4:07 pm
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