The rest of the world is watching this stuff. Multiple channels are given over to it in some pretty remote places. More people than we’d care to admit work with a simple equation: Christianity = America = Hollywood. It hardly seems fair, or reasonable – but it is still true, especially among those who are viewed as an enemy of some kind. Indirectly, Hollywood shapes how people view Christianity. So it is a faith that gets attached easily to extremist violence, repetitive profanity, and illicit sex. Is it that hard to understand people willing to sacrifice their lives to stem the tide of this junk flowing into the lives of their own kin? When the decibels become shrill about protecting freedom and the American way of life – multitudes simply assume that it is the Hollywood way of life that is to be protected because it is the only slice of America that they know.
I wince. As I do so, my heart goes out to authentic Christians in America who must be weary of wincing.
But it gets worse, much worse. On the news last night the focus was South Carolina as the next stop in the American election process. The counties of Carolina were being coloured in various ways as the chances of candidates in the various (apparently) mutually exclusive demographics were analyzed with a tap of the finger on that fancy board of theirs – like the ‘African-American’ one and then the ‘evangelical’ one.
“Excuse me? Are you inferring that there are no African-Americans in the evangelical constituency? Yes, you are. Let me tell you something that is kinda obvious, even from here in Bangalore. There are probably more evangelicals in that African-American constituency than there are in your so-called evangelical one. Since when did ‘evangelical’ become the exclusive domain of the ultra-conservative? On behalf of the global evangelical community, how dare you take our word, our identity, and drag it through such mud. Most of your so-called evangelicals are fundamentalists and some among them are people you tend to name, in other faiths, as extremists. Please realise the damage you are doing to the mission of God around the world, even as you think you are advancing His cause around your own country. You aren’t.”
Here is the sad irony. These so-called evangelicals place their hope in a nation with wealth and power and might. They are scrapping over who among them will do this the most effectively. Haven’t we walked this way before? Remember the Old Testament? See – genuine evangelicals base their life in the total Biblical story and focus their life totally on Christ. When this is done, even the most juvenile evangelical knows that hope does not lie in a nation targeting wealth and power and might. Hope lies with intriguing communities of faith subverting the hope placed in this wealth and power and might – and doing so with such grace and wisdom and courage and love and godliness and simplicity and humility that they experience the power of the Spirit transforming themselves and the worlds in which they live.
I wince. Nah. That is not true. I don’t wince. I get angry. I confess it. I have an anger problem. As I do so, my heart goes out to authentic evangelicals in America who must be weary of being angry.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me

the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…
Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…
Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…