This Is Our City

Vic, I see most of the social justice gospel nonsense coming from Andy Crouch and the departments he oversees (Cities, etc.) . I see Mark Galli, the editor of the magazine, as a theological conservative and sympathetic towards political conservatives and pentecostal or Charismatic believers. I see Tim Stafford, a major feature writer as a very fair, conservative writer. Hermeneutics has been surprisingly conservative (Good!). Gleanings has a decidedly liberal theological bias. The books chosen for review and the reviews themselves have been absolutely horrible. So it all depends on the subject area. I subscribe to the magazine because I want to know what my evangelical brethren are thinking and this is the key journal for that. It is disheartening to see the sad state of faith in the evangelical church and the disasterous and fatal adoption of social justice (which I regard as a false evangelical pentecost) which doomed mainline protestant church membership.

Rick - do you see any pattern in today's "Christianity Today" articles? I mentioned before that I will not purchase the magazine, and only read the on-line material to see the unfortunate direction these leaders are pushing us. Both of your comments are right-on. Thank-you!

Rachael says, "If my generation cares so deeply about global issues of justice and poverty that they are willing to change eating, clothing, and living habits, where are they? A significant challenge for nonprofits and ministries remains recruiting people who will commit to serve long-term outside the United States." Where is the generation that cares deeply about seeing those on the road to hell hearing the gospel, meeting Jesus and becoming born again? This is extremely sad. This is another gospel for sure.

I too am afraid of American Christians. American Christianity is a disease that replaces the true Gospel with a gospel of feel goodism. Too many churches go on "missions" where they dig wells and make sandwiches and the pat the backs of the downtrodden and tell them God has a wonderful plan for their life, but never tell the soul changing Gospel. They tend to try and make life a little nicer place to go to Hell from, rather than proclaim the Gospel of Christ. Liberal Christianity and quiet "anonymous Christian" theology are rotting the Church.

This is not Christianity. This is another gospel, a social justice gospel concerned with building utopias on earth. Alleviating global world poverty, redistribution of wealth, fair trade coffees, consumer activism, none of this is the gospel and it is a huge distraction from fulfilling the great commission. Sending youth groups on missions to build or dig wells is not the great commission and robs the kids of the experience of sharing the gospel. You find none of this kind of activity in the Gospels, none of this kind of activity in the book of Acts, none in the Epistles. I agree completely with Roger McKinney and J Thomas, social justice is a by product of the redeemed heart. The theologically liberal mainstream church (Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians) had a precipitous drop in membership and they’re the pioneers in social justice, that is their ONLY gospel. Now it’s being foisted on Evangelicals because we’ve failed to believe and preach the power of the supernatural gospel.