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Christianity Today, June, 2008 |

THE CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT

When God Disturbs the Peace

Our gospel may be small because we fail to believe that God animates many social movements.

Fleming Rutledge | posted 5/30/2008 10:34AM

If one calling of preachers is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, then Fleming Rutledge is a master of preaching. Her sermons, collected in several popular books, including The Undoing ...

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Larry from Arkansas

Posted: June 02, 2008 8:39 PM


This is a powerful article which has long been needed among us. The choice before us is not either the spiritual Gospel or the social Gospel. The Gospel deals with both spiritual and social issues because the two are connected. Thank God for the courage of this good writer and others of like mind.

Ephrem Hagos

Posted: June 02, 2008 2:44 AM


The gospel is small only to those who fail to obey and know who Jesus Christ is exclusively as mandated (Matt. 16: 13-280 and follow-up. Only in this way will there be room for the otherwise competing demands of individual salvation and community/social justice. The tragedy is for both demands to be disqualified because of our continued disobedience!

wickedness

Posted: June 01, 2008 4:47 AM

this article shows the hallmark of the social gospel which is denying the wickedness of the wicked. Judas was a prisoner of his own greed and his own wicked plans but he was still wicked and suffered the consequences. The whole world today is suffering poverty, war, natural disaster and hunger and high prices because God is calling everyone back to himself. God has had enough! And we have to face up to social and individual evil which has taken us away from proper heartfelt worship.

Jean	Posted: May 31, 2008 4:11 PM


Outstanding!.....full of a wisdom that is rooted in biblical understanding, with a clarity in defining the issues, this truly sheds light on the social justice vs. personal salvation dilemna....

so_free_me

Posted: May 31, 2008 11:43 AM

"These are the witnesses that truly bring us notice from the culture at large. " Here we go again--it is all about having the culture at large take note of us!! How pathetic is that?? Let's not deal with the truth, which is that no one has a clue if global warming is even occurring or if it is a problem if it is occurring, or if we can do one blessed thing to change it even if we all go back to horse and buggies, NO, lets accept the satanic (as she points out herself) views of the world held by the "culture at large" such as global warming, or that we all need universal health care etc etc and then lets address their pet peeves as if they are true in a way that the "culture at large" will approve of, i.e. socialism. And why do we care what the "culture at large" thinks of us? Because we have lost our souls, that is why.

Mary C. Fleming

Posted: May 31, 2008 9:52 AM


An excellent bridge of an article - if both sides of the increasingly widening divide would read, digest, pray, study and act. She is right on with the point that a true knowledge of scripture is what is needed.

Kaisen

Posted: May 31, 2008 1:30 AM

Wow, glory glory hallelujah to the tune of John Brown's Body. Four pages on the gospel, Jesus is mentioned only once and then only in the context of exocism. Tutu gets two mentions albeit without any exorcism. Campolo didn't even get a mention so we'll have to believe the article is balanced. Are we to understand if a group of public demonstrators vote to say 'we're not doing this, God is...' then it must be so according to the gospel? Either those tantrum throwers ought to be canonized or what they are saying is blasphemy. But hey, this is the post modern era so voting on what God means and says has become quite acceptable.

Wendell Franklin Wentz

Posted: May 30, 2008 10:22 PM

It is sad to find a God and a Jesus that have been manufactured in the minds of Americans. If Paul and the apostles walked through our land today, they would find the average believer adhereing to and believing what they see on television and hear on radioes from men and women who know nothing about Scripture. They are a group of proof-texting people who revere the Bible as a Paper Pope. Shame, shame, shame. The same religious group who did not stand for Civil Rights in the 1950's and 1960's are not standing for Human Rights and Civil Rights today when it comes to "illegal ailens" (there are no illegals to God), and men and women of different sexual preferences. They were the Pharisees of the Mid-Twenth Century, and they are the Pharisees of the Twenty-First Century. -Wendell Franklin Wentz

Don R.

Posted: May 30, 2008 9:42 PM

Thank you for publishing this wonderful article. I think one of the ways that the evil one tries to alienate social justice minded evangelical Christ Followers from their faith is by getting them to believe that Social Justice concerns will leave them as lonely minorities in the community of evangelical Christians as well as feeling like lonely minorities in mainline churches. What I think is especially tragic is when spiritual seekers decide to reject Christianity because of exposure from the media to the loud voices from some evangelicals who seem to reject social justice and community care. I am glad to see that people are attempting to reconcile the split between the social justice ethic of scripture and the personal salvation message of scripture. This reconciliation is important for the Faith Life and Deeds of Believers ("Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done...") as well as for the cause of Evangelism. Thank you!

John Hale

Posted: May 30, 2008 7:32 PM


Good article, can't add to what others have said, the Gospel needs to be preached and lived in both its personal and societal dimensions, just not one or the other.

david proffitt

Posted: May 30, 2008 7:26 PM

Very good article. I must add though, that many workers exploit their employers through gossip and laziness at work. They are not mistreated though they love to boast they are. Many complain over trivial request to work and expect to be rewarded for it. Worse is the significant number of people who gossip about co-workers, bosses malign them and treat them worse than any boss. This is an epidemic in workplaces all over the country. Many workers use the threat of lawsuits on their employers with laws that were passed to protect the truly oppressed ion the past. The devil fights on this front every day as well.

Pieter

Posted: May 30, 2008 4:14 PM


Amen, and again, Amen!

Geoff

Posted: May 30, 2008 2:45 PM

great article... lots to think about and pray about! And, Leroy, just to comment on your comment... I don't think it's necessary to separate the Enlightenment worldview (which, I agree, is insufficient) from the author's perspective -- it seems to me that "embracing an Enlightenment view" and "insufficient knowledge of Scripture and God's power" are two peas in a pod: Both are grounded in a rationalistic view of Christianity that is preconditioned to doubt anything that cannot be logically or empirically verified. So, instead of being grounded in faith and letting our action spring from that faith, we (and, yes, I'm guilty of this too) hesitate to act until we can see "evidence" of God's activity that fits with our preconceptions. And this often leads to the type of "small Gospel" that the author opposes. Very thought-provoking!

Leroy

Posted: May 30, 2008 1:24 PM

The problem w/ Rutledge's article is its premise. The reason some Christians see the gospel as a matter of individual salvation and others in terms of community and of social justice is not cultural, nor insufficient knowledge of the Scriptures, but an embracement of an insufficient worldview rooted in dualism and the Enlightenment, which results in a misunderstanding of the Gospels, Jesus, the resurrection and God's purposes with respect to his creation. God may/may not have animated, or be animating, social movements, but in the absence of unambiguous revelation from God that he is/is not doing x, y or z, such assertions are mere speculation. Nonetheless, it should go w/o saying that God is interested in justice, and that as believers we should should actively be pursuing justice, including social justice for all people made in God's image. That white evangelicals sat on the sidelines (or worse) during during the civil rights movement is to their great shame.

JackW

Posted: May 30, 2008 12:49 PM

One of the best articles I have read here. The article contains certain buzz words, such as “liberation” and “social justice” which will certainly bring on negative comments. Words from Martin Luther King Jr.’s last book, The Trumpet of Conscience are relevant: “The developed industrial nations of the world cannot remain secure islands of prosperity in a seething sea of poverty. The storm is rising against the privileged minority of the earth from which there is no shelter, or isolation , or armament…a true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our policies…and look uneasily on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth". Our nation spends more on "defense" than all of the rest of the world combined and ten times as much as China. If this is not an example of principalities and powers controlled by Satan, I don't know what is.

IkeC	Posted: May 30, 2008 11:49 AM


This is a powerful article, and it reminded me of truths I knew, but had let slip.

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