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Men of Integrity, January/February 2006
Ethics Gap
Theme of the Week: Mixed Signals
Sunday, January 8
Who Said It
Ron Sider
"Why are Christians living just like the rest of the world?" reads the subtitle of Ron's latest book to shake North American Christians: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (Baker, 2005). Sider, a professor at Eastern Seminary, and the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, continues to live in inner-city Philadelphia, promoting community development and publishing Prism magazine.
What He Said
Ethics Gap
An ethics gap, explains George Gallup Jr., is "the difference between the way people think of themselves and the way they actually are." Ironically, just when evangelicals are loudly supporting governmental faith-based initiatives (based on the assumption that spiritual faith can transform broken people), polling data from Barna suggest that in many crucial areas "born-again" Christians live no differently from their unbelieving neighbors:
- 25 percent have lived with a member of the opposite sex without getting married.
- The percentage who've experienced divorce is higher than that of non-Christians: 26 percent versus 22 percent.
- We spend 700 percent more time per week watching TV than participating in prayer, Bible reading, and worship.
Such lifestyles undermine our witness. What if every time non-Christians met evangelicals they discovered joyful, generous people in committed marriages. Instead we've been seduced by society's individualistic, adulterous, materialistic values.
Adapted from Prism (1-2/04) by permission.
Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
January/February 2006, Vol. 9, No. 1
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Prayer for the Week |
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Lord, give me the discernment and determination to make my conduct consistent with my beliefs.
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