Following Jesus As He Said
A. J. Jacobs
The Year of Living Biblically
The Red-Letter Christians are a loose-knit, like-minded group of preachers, the most prominent of whom are a Philadelphia-based pastor named Tony Campolo, and Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners magazine and author of God’s Politics.
....they are literal in the sene that their goal is to return to the plain, primary, simple sense of Jesus’ words, what Merriam-Webster’s entry for literalism call "the ordinary meaning of a term or expression."
When Jesus said that you should invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind to your banquets, then you should. When Jesus talked about nonviolence, we should take him at his word. The problem with a lot of religion, says Campolo, is that people have "interpreted the Gospel so much, we’ve started to believe the interpretations instead of what Jesus said."
....As for homosexuality, Campolo....doesn’t endorse gay marriage. But...at the same time, he believes it’s not a major Christian issue. It wasn’t what Jesus preached about. It’s not something on which we should waste spiritual capital. Jesus was concerned with breaking down barriers and embracing society’s outcasts. (269-271)
What would it means to start the new year actually following Jesus' teachings?
Together in Christ,
Stephen
