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Famed evangelist and social activist Tony Campolo dies at 89

Famed evangelist and social activist Tony Campolo dies at 89

Last updated on: November 21, 2024 at 6:18 am by Jim Denison

Famed evangelist and social activist Tony Campolo dies at 89 2024-11-21T06:18:04-06:00 Jim Denison

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Tony Campolo, the world-famous evangelist and social justice preacher, died Tuesday at the age of eighty-nine. When I heard the news, I debated whether or not to write on it.

Many of you may be too young to know why Campolo’s ministry matters. Those of us familiar with him know that his story is problematic on several levels. I worried that my comments might violate the biblical warning, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” (James 4:11).

Then I decided that there is a larger principle at work here that applies to each of us, whatever we know or think about Rev. Campolo and his legacy.

“Trying to see the world as he saw it”

Tony Campolo was born a second-generation Italian immigrant in 1935. His family attended an American Baptist congregation in West Philadelphia until it shut down as white people fled their African American neighbors for the suburbs. Tony’s father then took his family to a Black Baptist church nearby, where they worshiped.

As a student at Eastern College (now a university), Campolo studied John Wesley, the father of Methodism, in a class on “Christian classics.” He said he was moved by the Wesleyan revival with its “social consciousness, attacking slavery, championing the rights of women, ending child labor laws.” He added: “The Wesleyan vision was warm-hearted evangelism with an incredible social vision. Trying to see the world as he saw it changed me greatly.”

As a young pastor, Campolo experienced racism in his church and community. He left his church to get a doctorate in sociology and took a teaching position at Eastern in 1964, where he encouraged students to volunteer with children in Philadelphia. He also helped start a school in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. To recruit students and raise money for ongoing projects, he began accepting speaking invitations. At one point he was speaking five hundred times a year.

Campolo clearly identified with evangelicals, writing in 2015: “I surrendered my life to Jesus and trusted in him for my salvation, and I have been a staunch evangelical ever since.” He also said, “I believe the Bible to have been written by men inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit.”

Why he affirmed same-sex marriage

However, in 1985, Campolo was charged with heresy. In his book A Reasonable Faith, he urged Christians to care for others by stating that Jesus lives in all people, whether or not they are Christians. He also wrote that human-ness and God-ness are one and the same.

A group chaired by the renowned theologian J. I. Packer determined that Campolo’s unbiblical assertions were “evangelical inadvertence rather than any wish to insinuate universal salvation or justification by works.” Campolo responded by clarifying his belief that “saving grace . . . comes only in surrender to the Lordship of Christ.”

Campolo was active in the Democratic Party, running unsuccessfully for Congress in 1976 and working with President Bill Clinton to develop AmeriCorps in the 1990s. He also served as one of Clinton’s personal spiritual advisors during the Monica Lewinski scandal. In 2007, he and author and activist Shane Claiborne founded Red Letter Christians to highlight the “red letter” words of Christ in Scripture and thus his social and ethical teachings.

In 2015, he came out in favor of same-sex marriage ahead of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. He explained that he had changed his mind after spending time with LGBTQ Christians in committed, monogamous relationships and reflecting on the fundamental purpose of marriage. In his view, marriage exists primarily for sanctification; if a same-sex marriage encouraged people to grow in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), he believed that the church should affirm it.

“Captive to the word of God”

I heard Tony Campolo speak several times and was always moved by his prophetic critique of evangelicals with regard to those in need. His call for us to mobilize our resources to serve “the least of these” mirrors Jesus’ call to us all (Matthew 25:31–46). I also understand his desire to impact society through political engagement and his compassion for LGBTQ persons.

At the same time, his story highlights a temptation we all face: interpreting God’s word through the prism of our personal experiences, values, and passions rather than interpreting our lives through the prism of Scripture.

The deeper our passions, the greater this temptation.

We must not revise our biblical theology to align with our personal passions, no matter how strong they may be. This is not only because God’s word, like God’s character, is timeless and unchanging (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; Hebrews 13:8; Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:25). It is also because God’s word possesses a transformative power no other words can claim.

We are “born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23) as “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “The implanted word . . . is able to save your souls” (James 1:21) as the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to convict us of our sins (John 16:8), bring us to salvation (cf. Acts 10:44), and grow us in sanctification (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

As I told my seminary students, the only word God is obligated to bless is his word.

If we do not speak the authoritative word of God to the issues we face, no matter how difficult this may be, we rob people of that truth which can most encourage, liberate, and transform them. If we alter God’s word to fit our culture, we rob those we seek to serve of God’s best for their lives.

Martin Luther, in explaining his Protestant commitment to sola Scriptura (“only the Bible”) as the source of his theology and life, testified:

“My conscience is captive to the word of God.”

Is yours?

Thursday news to know:

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“We should read the Bible as those who listen to the very speech of God.” —F. B. Meyer

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