The words ‘evangelical’ and ‘evangelism’ produce distinctly queasy feelings among some people, Christian and otherwise. In the media, they are often wrongly used interchangably.
So writes Ekklesia’s Simon Barrow in a report about a great gathering of evangelical leaders from around the world.
The Lausanne Movement – brainchild of Southern Baptist Billy Graham, now 92 – with the participation of the World Evangelical Alliance, is currently hosting the Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, until October 25.
The Lausanne Movement goes back to 1974, when, in a historic global meeting, evangelicals from different traditions embraced social action alongside the communication of the Gospel message as a core components of the Christian vocation in the world. The outcome was the Lausanne Covenant.
“Evangelical”, explains Barrow:
Refers to a tradition in Christianity which emphasises the Bible as its supreme authority; while evangelism means ‘sharing Good News’, and is the responsibility of all Christians.
He adds:
The problem arises from the fact that some evangelicals appear extremely conservative and dogmatic in their religious (and often political) views. At one end of the spectrum is what gets called fundamentalism. But there are also ‘moderate’, ‘conciliar’, ‘progressive’ ‘left’, ‘ecumenical’, ‘radical’, ‘emergent’ and ‘open’ evangelicals – who in different ways see the biblical message as pointing towards what theologian Brian McLaren calls ‘a generous orthodoxy’, and in the case of Sojourners and others, tends towards a radical peace and justice message. Many modern Mennonites in the US and elsewhere can be seen as in this framework.
In other words, ‘evangelicalism’ is far from a monolithic reality – and its automatic and lazy equation with hardline conservatism or fundamentalism is unfair as well as inaccurate for a significant number in the movement.
The organisers have said that it is their wish that “God’s name may be honoured” in an era where many abuses are committed in the name of religion, and being evangelicals, they also hope that:
Many more men, women and young people will be able to hear and respond to the message of Christ presented in a relevant and culturally appropriate manner.
Over 4,000 evangelical leaders from 200 countries are attending Cape Town 2010. Around 70 per cent of the participants are from the global South; some 40 per cent are 20-40 year-olds; 25 per cent are from the African continent. We will be reporting on some of the major developments of the Congress, as time and the flow of information allows.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
October 20th, 2010 at 10:43 am
The World will still have no idea what these morons are about once their congress is over. Attended by 4000 evangelical leaders from 200 countries each with their own opinion ranging from moderate to fundamentalist.
Will they be able agree on anything?
Will they fight?
Who cares?
Ivan Jelical:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Jelical
October 20th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Yeah, we understand all right. No matter what their political perspective they will still want to push their religion down your throat.
October 20th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Semantics 101. I doubt the world gives a rat’s ass what these people call themselves, still less how they would like to be seen by that world.
“alongside the communication of the Gospel message as a core components of the Christian vocation in the world”… Well this gets to the heart of it. Just WTF is the message of a bunch of bronze and iron age myths that have no relevance to today? How TF do they constitute a “message”?
October 20th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
The German name of the Protestant church in Germany is “Deutsche Evangelische Kirche”. The board outside its branch in Liverpool was translated literally to “German Evangelical Church” which led many Liverpudlians to believe that it was an “evangelical church” as it is generally understood here. I do not know if it was subsequently changed to “Protestant”. It was in that church, while reciting the crede, that my temporary belief in the unbelievable came to an abrupt end.
October 20th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
So the knob whose son runs ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ and other scams, and who came up with that cuckoo scheme for US military handing out bibles along with emergency supplies in Iraq, which in turn meant obscenities like army chaplains offering bombed out refugees access to food and shelter only after they’d been to a prayer meeting, is worried about abuses carried out in the name of religion?
Somehow I doubt that.
October 20th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I would like to think people may sit up and say ‘who cares?’.
I thnik this link to an old punk song says it better than I can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ature=fvsr
October 20th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I think it would be smart to watch out for these guys.
They see their power bases eroding an alarming rate and they know who is at fault-ATHEISTS!!!!
So although each may think the other is wrong, together they all know that atheists are ‘wronger’.
They will band together to destroy the atheist/secular enemy, and once they are gown then they can just take care of the others.
Yes when 4000 higher ups get together to decide strategic actions, sounds like a conspiracy to me, which is very different from one guy and his cat saying we never went to the moon.
October 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Not that I’d wish for it, but I’d be interested to see what they’d say if an earthquake or other disaster was to hit Cape Town.
(Odd coincidence—I was idly wondering earlier whether it’s ‘Cape Town’ or ‘Capetown’. Guess that one’s cleared up, then.)
tony: Great song, great band.
October 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Evangelism isn’t the same as evangelicals the same way stamp collecting isn’t the same as stamp collectors. Evangelism is ‘sharing the good news’ while evangelicals merely emphasise the bible as their supreme authority? There’s a difference here? One is following a book which tells them to spread the good news and another is spreading the good news because a book told them to.
Besides, when you’re trying to differentiate yourselves from the extremists by emphasising your belief in the authority of a book that tells you to stone your own children to death and feed suspected adulteresses with abortificants just to see who the father is, you have a problem. They seem to be trying to wash their hands of the reputation evangelism has received, without washing their hands of either its methods or its beliefs.
October 20th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Whatever!! They should join J. Ratzinger and try to conquer the world for Jesus, there are some Muslim crazies about with the same kind of wet dream. Can someone please make a small comet drop on this merry crowd?
October 20th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Has that evangelical troll Bob Hutton gone to Cape Town?
On his blog he briefly mentioned his family and claimed they were all “saved”, so we share something in common. Before I too am labelled a troll and banned, I should mention that my saviour was the RLNI.
Hutton “You’ll all burn in hell!” has an amusing American cousin:
http://www.collegeotr.com/jame.....tors_11363
October 20th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
That will be a fun throng and the whiff of smoke from the fires of hell will never be far away. Being sanctimonious and hypocrital gits many of them will have been/will be rifling their budgets and shagging their secretaries or whatever.
I read somewhere recently that of the 10 States in the good old U.S. of A. with the highest divorce rates, nine were in the Southern Fundie Bible Belt. I don’t know, here I am an atheist, my wife is an atheist and neither of us has been divorced even once. Both my grown up children are atheists and neither of them is divorced.
Very strange. We atheists are supposed to be the ones causing the disintegration of families and society..
Just to finish, some twenty years ago a couple of evangelicals we knew were married after having been “chosen by Jesus.” Now that was a marriage made in heaven if ever there was one. Two years after the nuptials, the wife ran to a neighbour’s door screaming, banging the door and shouting that her husband was beating the crap out of her. Their young son was the most anxious kid you could imagine.
Don’t know what happened to them all. We left the area. I sometimes wonder about the fate of that child.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
I don´t know about anybody else, but I find their choice of venue particularly crass given the amount of religious abuse that this country and all of Africa has suffered in the past and is still suffering.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
David Anderson.
I think with the superstition blunted sensitivies of that lot and the egocentric certainty that they are right whatever they do they would not be either aware or troubled. Imagine 4000 of them together and the rancid air of self righteous double talk must be some weird experience. The blood of the lamb for washing in will be splashed all over.
October 20th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Confused about the evangelical position? It’s easy:
Feet evenly spaced, bend at the waist, spread cheeks apart and receive your bountiful blessing.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
L.Long, it is an interesting thing that the rabidly religious see atheists as such a threat. For a very long time we have been happy to live and let live, it is only after extreme provocation that we have put down our collective foot and said enough is enough. I wonder if the problem is that we keep on asking for evidence that their god exists and that they are a bit embarrassed that they don’t actually have any?
October 20th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Stonyground,
You have nailed it, the fact that we constantly ask ‘prove it’ and the best any of them can come up with ‘well the bible says God exists.’
I’d get better reasoned arguments from a five year old.
October 20th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Sincerely, it’s time to put paid to this Bible fetishism! Inerrant my dog’s arse fleas! Yhe bible is only a collection of glorified ol’books written thousands of years ago, that tell you almost NOTHING of value for the modern world! It should be declared expired by now!
October 21st, 2010 at 9:31 am
So evangelicals want to steal my time again. That’s what they always want to do. Do not steal they say, but they don’t mind trying to steal my time. Freedom from someone else’s religion is one of the greatest freedoms we can enjoy. Once they have truly understood how happy they are at not having Khamenei-ism or Kim-Il-Sung-ism rammed down their throats, they they might understand why I consider evangelism such bad manners.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:45 am
Great event to compare notes on tax avoidance and investment planning not mentioning, of course, how to extract the most moolah from the gullable poor.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:54 am
http://www.timeslive.co.za/loc.....hacked-off
October 23rd, 2010 at 3:53 am
Imagine the the fun of it all. Four thousand evangelical “leaders” all in the one (African) place. They’ll spend four days agreeing with each other and bolstering each others belief system. They’ll confirm to each other that their particular brand of nonsense is the right one. Anyone that subscribes to any other nonsense will spend an eternity at evangelical conventions. ugh!