In case you’ve missed it so far… November 19, 2007
Posted by Zack in Missouri , trackback
Some of my friends back in world of lefty politics are just realizing that I’m writing this blog and are asking, “What in the world are you doing?” So here’s a quick catch-up for those joining this blog already in progress.
First, here are my favorite posts so far, if you want to dive right in:
- Almost Speechless (w/ Audio Clips from an amazing evangelical conference)
- An Air Force cadet whose Bible caused him to drop out
- Class war in the Bible?
- Chris Seay’s video
- A tale of two movements
Elizabeth and I have been traveling the country for the past few months working on a couple of different projects. Right away, we kept bumping into these amazing communities of “progressive evangelical” Christians—that is, people who hold a lot of progressive (even radical) political views, but who believe in an almost fundamentalist theology. It’s a huge movement—possibly of up to twenty million active participants. And so I decided to start this blog as way of explaining it to my secular progressive friends and colleagues back in DC.
I have been watching this “Revolutionary Christian” scene for a couple years already. Honestly, I thought I was exaggerating its size when I was trying to get my friends excited about it. But, as it turns out, it’s far bigger than I ever imagined.
When Elizabeth and I got married, I started going to church with her. We were in North Carolina then, and explored many different non-denominational and charismatic evangelical churches. I was shocked at how radical they were when it came to social-economic issues. They all seemed to be whipped up in the beginnings of some sort of conscious mass return to the spirit of Early Christianity—of leaving your wealth behind, not just helping the poor but joining the poor, adopting kids lost in the foster system and HIV+ babies, etc….
Only small handfuls of people in the congregations were actually doing those kinds of things, but they were being held up as the ideal, while the preachers relentlessly laid down the new/ancient theology of building “the Kingdom of Heaven” here on Earth, and of a Jesus who is “the God of the poor and oppressed.”
For me, surprise turned to feverish curiosity when a mostly upper-middle class/suburban/Republican mega-church had a sermon, based on the New Testament Epistle to the Colossians, that railed against the “Empire” of Pax Americana—the empire of “might makes right” and idolatrous consumerism.
Some googling turned up a whole web of explicit anti-Imperialist and even anti-Capitalist thinking at evangelical Churches all over the country. I wrote an article about some of the key players for In These Times magazine. But still, I admit that I thought the movement was limited to a handful of churches in college towns and a few Northern cities.
But then, a few months ago, when we hit the road, first in Georgia and South Carolina and then Iowa—we realized these people were everywhere, all around us. I mean literally: out here, I look around any coffee shop and half the time can find someone reading one of the books of this movement (usually with their Bible and highlighter handy) or holding a discussion or Bible study, punctuated at the start and end by hands joined and heads bowed in prayer. They are sitting next to us on planes. They are taking over in half of the little, Bible-banging churches we wander into on Sundays wherever we are.
Therefore, this blog. Last month we went to a few big Christian conferences that totally blew me away. Check out the posts from the Catalyst conference—especially this one.
So—now you’re all caught up. I’ll keep reporting here from around the country as we go.
If you have suggestions for any particular churches or communities to write about, please email us at info@revolutioninjesusland.com.
Comments»
This is great. I put up a plug for it on my blog and linked to your blog.
http://metacrock.blogspot.com/
I love your blog and am impressed by the way you’re going about studying the issue… my wife and I are living in a situation that has turned our lives upside down… feel free to check it out our website at www.irenedias.com.
I hope to follow your journey and would love to meet you someday.
[…] Zack Exley, who is known to most of us for his role on Moveon.org is traveling the country and chronicling some amazing developments within the evangelical community. His blog is must-reading for those who think they have it all figured […]
Maybe, someday, you’ll learn that not everyone wants to be a xian.
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