The heart of Evangelicalism is keeping the Gospel call at the heart of all we do.” Evangelicals have come to misrepresent Christianity. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Texas, professed at the Boston demonstration that “Evangelical is a category I can’t use any more. David Wilhite, professor of theology at George W. Thistlethwaite believes that “If you speak the language people use in their faith, you have a chance of reaching them.” We pray for the conversion of the converted.” Responding to Jesus’ courageous call to love ‘the least of these,’ we need to put our prayers into action with revolutionary love. Peter Goodwin Heltzel of the New York Theological Seminary, “such that the Good News of Jesus has become a cover for a social and economic order that can only be understood as bad news for far too many. “Far too many Evangelical Christians have embraced the politics of exclusion, exploitation, and hatred,” said the self-identified Evangelical Rev. Without mentioning Prosperity Gospel by name, the Declaration criticizes those forces in contemporary Christianity that emphasize material success-and excess-as evidence of God’s favor. It is the opposite of love, the opposite of Jesus’ teaching of love and mercy.” This is the basest kind of tribalism that feeds hatred. “They make excuses for racial hatred and sexual abuse, and some have even said that it would be better to vote for a pedophile than a Democrat. “Today, too many Christians are placing party politics over the foundational teachings of Jesus,” said Rev. Thistlethwaite wrote about the Declaration in a Huffington Post article, “When we have torch-carrying right-wing radicals marching around in Charlottesville, Virginia, yelling ‘Blood and soil!’ and ‘Jews will not replace us!’ it is time to confront this kind of Nazism with the historical courage of those who confronted the Nazis in the 1930s in Germany.” The statement is modeled on the Barmen Declaration of 1934, when Christian theologians like Karl Barth, Martin Niemöller, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke out against the German subjugation of all churches under Adolf Hitler. Susan Thistlethwaite, teacher at the Chicago Theological Seminary and a spokesperson for the Declaration in an interview with People’s World, “but to bring some kind of repentance for conservative Christianity which has been hijacked by political hacks.” “We’re trying not to be dramatic,” said Rev. “Finally, we are here because we believe our nation yearns to hear from us this day and to watch for how our commitment as Christian theologians continues into the election season of next year.” We are here because we refuse to allow Christianity to be co-opted by the likes of people who support abuse of women, the closing of our nation to the immigrant in need, and the normalizing of lie after lie after lie. She said: “We are here because Jesus taught us to ‘love our neighbor as ourselves.’ We are here because we take the parable of the Good Samaritan to heart. Pamela Lightsey, associate dean at Boston University School of Theology, contrasted the Gospel teachings with what is being peddled as Christianity today in some conservative circles, both religious and political. In the days since the Declaration was posted online, the number of signatories has grown to over 2,000. Over 100 theologians, bishops, and leaders in Christian seminaries and denominations originally signed the Boston Declaration to protest the demise of core values, at a time when favored politicians are exposed as blatant racists and sexual predators. The Declaration is a ringing call for the country to turn toward honest, reflective self-examination and a spur to action to end oppression. From it, in 1773, Samuel Adams gave the signal that started the Boston Tea Party. That church, established in 1669 and considered the “mother church” of Congregationalism in America, played a significant role in the American Revolution. In conjunction with the physical demonstration, the group of faith leaders and theologians launched The Boston Declaration at the Old South Church at 12:30 pm on Monday, November 20th. Christianity, took place outside a meeting in Boston, Mass., of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, the largest annual gathering of religious scholars and leaders in the U.S. The action by Christian theologians, who are grieving over the corruption of U.S. Two dozen faith leaders from around the United States resurrected an ancient Biblical custom of covering themselves with sackcloth and ashes in a powerful demonstration of prophetic urgency and grief over their fellow Christians who make excuses for racial hatred and sexual abuse rather than fighting oppression. Signatories of the Boston Declaration covered in sackcloth and ashes.
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