Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics - Hardcover

TONY CAMPOLO is a professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), an organization that develops schools and social programs in various third world countries and in cities across North America, Dr. Campolo is an ordained minister and is presently recognized as an associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. He is a media commentator on religious, social and political matters, having appeared on television programs such as Nightline, Crossfire, Politically Incorrect, The Charlie Rose Show, The Colbert Report andCNN News. He cohosted his own television series, Hashing It Out, on the Odyssey Network, and presently hostsFrom Across the Pond, a weekly program on the Premier Radio Network in England. Dr. Campolo is the author of more than 30 books, includingLetters to a Young Evangelical and Red Letter Christians: A Citizen’s Guide to Faith and Politics.

Over the past couple of decades, Evangelical Christians have been associated with the Religious Right and the most conservative positions of the Republican Party. Rebelling against this designation are those who prefer to be called Red Letter Christians, desiring to live out the red letters of Jesus words in the New Testament. Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, Red Letter Christians transcend partisan politics and concentrate on issues viewed critically through a moral and biblical lens.

Into this arena of thought steps Tony Campolo, the powerful evangelist known for his passionate and prophetic sharing of the radical message of Jesus. In this book, Campolo examines many of the hot-button issues facing Evangelicals from the perspective of Jesus red-letter words in the Bible. These include the environment, war, the AIDS crisis, Palestine, education, gun control, the role of government and choosing the right kind of candidate. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, Campolo will make you think, pray and act.

Tony writes this book with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, reminding us that our faith must affect how we live in this world. This book is not just about how to vote in November it is about how we vote every single day.
SHANE CLAIBORNE
Urban Monastic, Activist, Red Letter Christian and Author of Jesus for President

With Campolian passion and insight, Red Letter Christians prods, challenges, questions, invites and instructs us to be people who love and live the words of Jesus.
BRIAN MCLAREN
Author (brianmclaren.net)

With the maturity and depth only an elder statesman can provide, Tony Campolo brings his acute moral clarity to issues ranging from abortion to environmental stewardship, global poverty to gay marriage and everything in between. Campolo knows that people of faith should not be in the pocket of any political party that God is not a Republican or a Democrat.
JIM WALLIS
Author of God s Politics

From Red Letter Christians:

Challenging the popular image of Evangelicals is one of the purposes of this book. I want it to be known that there are millions of us who espouse an evangelical theology, but who reject being classified as part of the Religious Right. We don t want to make Jesus into a Republican.

On the other hand, we want to say loud and clear that we don t want to make Jesus in a Democrat, either.

Early twentieth-century playwright and social critic George Bernard Shaw once said that God created us in His image and we decided to return the favor! Clearly there are those on the Religious Right who would make Jesus into a Republican and an incarnation of their political values. And on the other side of the aisle, there are those who would make Jesus into a Democrat who espouses their particular liberal agenda.

But Jesus refuses to fit into any of our political ideologies. Transcending partisan politics, Jesus calls us to make judgments about social issues as best we can when we vote, and to do so in accord with our best understanding of God s will. In doing so, we are to avoid partisan politics that lead to unnecessary, unproductive and even dangerous divisions.

At election time when you are asked, Are you a Democrat or a Republican? your answer should be, Name the issue! On any specific social or political issue, we must be ready and willing to work out which party and/or candidate best represents our convictions.

This, of course, will make voting into a difficult decision-making process. But who said following Jesus was easy?