Dear Editor,
Many thanks for the timely and refreshingly perceptive interview (en February); with Professor Karen Swallow Prior. This is surely a wake-up call for all who claim the evangelical position. Karen Swallow Prior is rightly concerned about the lackadaisical nature of much contemporary Protestant evangelism. In her strong words: ‘We need to... stop being blind to the things [e.g abuses]...infront of us’.
It is probable that many church ‘abuses’ originate from the fashionable cult of ‘evangelical’ leader personalities – the main curse of our current Christian age.
This engrossing interview also resonates with my own view concerning some evangelical factions living in self-righteous theological glasshouses; those who look with disdain upon Christians not subscribing to their closed, absolutist viewpoints.
However, I think there is an even wider application involved here. Namely, a challenge to ‘evangelicals’ to become more fully engaged with the non-Christian world which we all now inhabit (like it or not). Again, this is a question of opening our eyes more fully; that is awareness of world-wide injustices perpetrated by big business greed (including the arms industry), and self-serving politics in our own country. Yet many Christians prefer to sit on the political fence. But if so, how then can we be properly obedient to what a Holy God requires of us? (Namely: ‘To act justly and to love mercy’. Micah 6:8a). We either see and care, or we don’t see and care to address the plight of our oppressed neighbours (whether in UK, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan or elsewhere).
The point here revolves on the distressing lack of discernment in many Christian churches of all denominations and independent varieties. In this context one wonders how many people ever preach on Hebrews 5:12-14, where the writer laments this failure of discernment. In his words, ‘mature’ Christians have ‘trained themselves to distinguish good from evil’. (5:14). This should be a fundamental goal of all Christians, to see beyond lies and cover-ups, particularly of governments, big corporations and the sycophant media.
And if more Christians sought and trained for this goal, there would be less likely the narrow-mindedness as well as the hidden abuses which all too frequently exist in various churches today. The bottom line is that any evangelism lacking discernment of good and evil’s applicable gradients is rendered worthless. It is thus indeed more than time to start seeing better.
Yours sincerely,
Mr M.H. Davis
Oswestry
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the interview with Karen Swallow Prior in the February issue of en.
I do hope you are going to follow it with an appraisal of the areas where Karen Swallow Prior thinks evangelicalism is all mixed up with secular/Victorian values etc and needs attention.
I should think that most people inside ‘evangelicalism’ do not know where to start. OK she suggests asking questions but ??? I do ask questions and seek to apply Biblical understanding but... It would be good to have some if not all of her suggestions to ascertain their truth or otherwise. And to encourage others to think further.
Yours sincerely,
Jo Gardner
By email
John Woods, en reviews editor, writes: Thank you for your thoughtful letter. It is good to know that the paper is read so carefully. I did approach Karen Swallow Prior for comment. Like me she felt that the best way to address the questions was to suggest that you read her book.
To speak to your questions briefly, it is worth saying that the author’s primary audience is the US church. Yet it is not difficult to look far in the British scene to observe a similar lack of imagination. We have confused authority with authoritarianism. How could we have been so blind to the abuses of power, the mistreatment of woman and the financial impropriety that have blighted some of our trusted evangelical institutions and brought shame on some of the leaders who were seen as evangelical champions? How could we have confused ‘submission’ with a cowed passive silence that is afraid to question those in ‘authority’? At times Evangelicals have confused the infallibility of Scripture with the assumed infallibility of their interpretations of Scripture.
