A new Evangelical Manifesto has just been released. It is an attempt by several American-Evangelical leaders to clarify what the term “Evangelical” actually means.
The Steering Committee comprised:
Timothy George – Dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
Os Guinness – Author/Social Critic
John Huffman – Pastor, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, CA Chair, Christianity Today International
Rich Mouw – President, Fuller Theological Seminary
Jesse Miranda – Founder & Director, Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership, Vanguard University
David Neff – Vice President and Editor in Chief, Christianity Today Media Group
Richard Ohman – Businessman
Larry Ross – President, A. Larry Ross Communications
Dallas Willard – Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern California Author
Other signers of the manifesto include Jim Willis of Sojourners.
Not surprisingly, other prominent Evangelicals leaders such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Gary Bauer of American Values, and Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, have not signed on. IMHO, these are the Culture War groups of the Religious Right that have by degree moved from being Evangelical to being more Fundamentalist – or at least have been so compromised by seeking after political gain that they truly represent a shrinking, although still active and influential, group of people.

There has been a return to the early Church Fathers by many on the Evangelical and Fundamentalist side of the American Church Universal. This is a very good thing, I think, but what do they take away from the early Fathers’ writings? In their perception and interpretation, what are they really saying?
There is this organization I came across a number of years ago. I’ve watched it grow over the last few years. Their emphasis on fostering a Christian Worldview is a good thing, I think. I’ve been teaching about the significance of “worldview” since the mid-1980’s. We Americans have very limited understanding of the concept of worldview and the effects of culture on the way we understand just about everything – truth, meaning, current events, etc.
This group, Worldview Weekend, strives to teach Christians about the “Christian Worldview.” When I originally heard about this group I was encouraged. “Finally,” I thought, “an Evangelical Christian organization was taking seriously the concept of “worldview.” But, I became suspicious when I took their “Worldview Test” to determine what my worldview actually was. I came out as a “Secular Humanist.” I don’t think so. Really, me, a secular humanist?
The problem begins when we think about what they consider to be a true “Christian Worldview!” What are they saying? How do they take, interpret, and apply the writings of the early Church Fathers – Polycarp, Ireneaus, Ignatius, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Ambrose, Tertullian, or Chrysostom.
I know the audience for this website and organization. I know the way these people think. While I’m glad they are referencing such luminary Christian thinkers, it bothers me that they use these thinkers for their own purposes. (Yes, yes, I know we all tend to do this, but this is a different kind of animal – its more propaganda than honest use of the Fathers’ teaching, I think.) The whole “worldview” of the early Christian Fathers does not fit within the “worldview” of this or like organizations and their members. My impression is that these groups selectively quote and use the early Church Fathers’ writings when it suits their purposes, but I know that they will reject the basic premises of what these Christian thinkers espouse as Christian truth and praxis in so many other areas. I don’t think they go to the Father’s to learn, but to find justifications to their already determined perspectives. What doesn’t fit, even if is essential to understanding the Fathers’ purposes or premises, they simply ignore. It’s like proof-texting with the Bible.
It gives them an air of authority and understanding, but for those who do comprehend the overarching thinking of the early Church Fathers (and I’m not suggesting that I do, but I know enough to understand that they and American-Fundamentalists are not on the same page) – it just doesn’t jibe. American-Fundamentalism and segments of Evangelicalism find language in the early Church Fathers’ writings and interpret it according to the 21st Century, modernist, imperialist, American-Christian “worldview,” not according to the actual “worldview” of the early Church Fathers. Many do this with the writings of C.S. Lewis, also. The language may sound similar, but the understanding of meaning and intent of that language is very different in too many circumstances. It makes me wonder whether they really do understand “worldview,” but rather use the term to advance a particular sectarian mindset and agenda. My goodness, do they think Origin would really agree with their theological, social, or political agendas?
Anyway, go to this article on Worldview Weekend’s website written by Steve Camp, the Contemporary Christian entertainer popular back in the day, entitled: Your Weekly Dose of Gospel… beware of the subtlety of spiritual treason
You may agree with him. You may not. I do agree with parts of what he says, but I’m certainly not with him. As he says, there are elements of truth in all heresy (even his own). But, I really don’t think he rightly applies the teachings of the early Church Fathers. He uses them for his own purposes, incorrectly. My goodness, again, when he calls the Roman Catholic Church a demonic “angel of light,” does he not know how the Church Fathers ordered themselves?