Tony Campolo: Poverty is Jesus' Job OneEvangelical activist Campolo, who will speak in Minnesota next week, sees fighting poverty as the key issue for Christians.By Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
(excerpt)
Along with Jim Wallis, Randall Balmer and others, Campolo has become a leader in the increasingly influential national movement of left-leaning evangelicals. On Wednesday night, he'll speak at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi; the event is free and open to the public.
(snip)
Q You've called on young Christians to carry out the teachings of Jesus in this world. What does that mean in practical terms?
A It means to serve the poor. I'd recommend that young people consider something like {the national Christian service program} Mission Year {run by Campolo's son, Bart}. No matter what you plan to be -- a lawyer, teacher, doctor -- you'll be better at it if you go live and work among our brothers and sisters who live in poverty. It's urgently important to taste life in other sectors of our society; otherwise you may develop a jaded or intolerant outlook.
Most kids who come to Mission Year arrive as right-wing Republicans and leave as left-leaning Democrats because they find out how different life is for poor people. For instance, they discover that police in inner-city Philadelphia don't act the same as those in suburban Minneapolis. Life is grittier there, and less fair.
(snip)
Q Do you sense that so-called red-letter Christians {those who emphasize the words of Jesus, which many Bibles print in red ink} are growing in number?
A Yes. The main reason has been disillusionment with the war in Iraq. People realize that we've been sold a bill of goods. Then there was the Katrina mess. Those things have caused a lot of evangelicals to turn against the Bush administration.
Also, for years, a silent mass of evangelicals who didn't want to be associated with the religious right was ignored. Now they've come forward. And in purely practical terms, the size of the more conservative camps such as James Dobson's is shrinking simply because those folks tend to be older.
Continued @
http://www.startribune.com/614/story/947289.html LOVE GOD / LOVE PEOPLE // NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
Mission Year is a radical opportunity for Christian young people to put into practice the simplest and most important commandment of Jesus: "Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself." By living and working for a year in a poor, urban neighborhood, partnering with a local church, volunteering at a social service agency, and spending time with neighbors, our Mission Year team members effectively impact their communities while catching a deeper vision for what the Kingdom of God is like.
More info @
http://www.missionyear.org/ 
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