Over 300 Christian Theologians Challenge The Corruption Of U.S. Christianity

Repent And Believe In The Gospel! 

The Boston Declaration, condemning the abuse of the Christian faith by many conservatives today, was just written, signed and released by over 300 hundred Christian theologians attending the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, an annual meeting of nearly 10,000 professionals in religion.

In a dramatic press conference at Boston’s famous Old South Church, where many dressed in sackcloth and ashes to call for repentance and change in Christianity in the United States, the presenters were clear that white American Evangelicalism is in a crisis, a crisis of its own making. It has abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Is Roy Moore a hill on which Evangelicals are prepared to die? As for me and my house, ‘Hell no, we won’t go,’” said Evangelical theologian Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel, Associate Professor of Theology at New York Theological Seminary, asking the crisis question and answering it. “During difficult days in our nation, The Boston Declaration calls Christians to follow the Jesus Way, bearing prophetic witness to Christ through fight racism, sexism, poverty and all forms of oppression.”

One of the key organizers of The Boston Declaration, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, Associate Dean at Boston University School of Theology, contrasted the Gospel teachings with what is being peddled as Christianity today in some conservative circles, both religious and political. She said:

We are here because Jesus taught us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” We are here because we take the parable of the Good Samaritan to heart. We are here because we refuse to allow Christianity to be co-opted by the likes of people who support abuse of women, the closing of our nation to the immigrant in need and the normalizing of lie after lie after lie.

Finally, we are here because we believe our nation yearns to hear from us this day and to watch for how our commitment as Christian theologians continues into the election season of next year.

Rev. Dr. David Wilhite, professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, said with great intensity that “Evangelical is a category I can’t use any more. Evangelicals have come to misrepresent Christianity. The heart of Evangelicalism is keeping the Gospel call at the heart of all we do.”

Dr. Wilhite noted that Evangelicals “are supposed to have a come to Jesus moment.” And this time in American life, he argued, is clearly such a moment. “Evangelical Christianity has become white, male Christianity. And for this we need to repent.”

Rev. Dr. Reggie Williams, professor of ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary, talked of the heavy hearts carried by himself and other African-Americans in this current moment. “These are sinister times, but they are not new. As a black person educated in Evangelical Christian institutions, I am familiar with a Christianity that has a history of ignoring my being, and providing theological justification for my non-being.”

But, he emphasized, what is “new in my lifetime to have such an over embrace of it.” How can people say it is Christianity to “proclaim good news to the rich or push the differently embodied person to the margins? Now is the time to follow Jesus the poor Jewish prophet whose teaching of the Kingdom was the inspiration for the Boston Declaration.”

I spoke as well. I am a Professor of Theology and President Emerita of Chicago Theological Seminary.

When we have torch carrying right-wing radicals marching around in Charlottesville, Virginia yelling “blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” it is time to confront this kind of Nazism with the historical courage of those who confronted the Nazis in the 1930s in Germany.

German Christian theologians and pastors spoke out against the corruptions of the Nazi regime that was using every possible deception to wrap itself in the sacred. It was a travesty. Some of them paid for that courage with their lives.

We need that kind of courage today. I said:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Christian pastor who was arrested and ultimately executed by the Nazis for his opposition to Hitler, contrasted what he called “cheap grace” with the costly grace of the Gospel. “Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits.”

The Christianity Bonhoeffer denounced is the Christianity we denounce today. It is a Christianity that literally enables hate, hate for people of color, for immigrants, for those of other religions, for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender human beings, for women and girls, for the poor and the most vulnerable among us.

And why do these so-called Christians do this? Not out of obedience to the teachings of Jesus, because Jesus taught the exact opposite of their hate-mongering. No, they do it for power, for political gain.

Jesus asks, “What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” Mark 8:36

We are not here merely to denounce, however. The most important thing we can do as Christian theologians is announce the good news of the Gospel. The good news is the radical inclusivity of God, for God so loved the world. Not just some in the world who are white, or rich, or male or heterosexual. God loved the whole world of animals and plants and the entire ecosystem that is a victim of this same rapaciousness and nearly mindless drive for political domination.

The good news, and it is very good news, is an invitation to turn away from greed and turn toward love of neighbor.

Turn away from hate and turn towards love. It’s actually more fun here in the circles of radical hospitality.

Jesus said, “Love one another.” And we say, “Amen.”

Is There a Cost to Being a Friend of Jesus?

If you have ever read Deitrich Bonhoeffer, you will know that there is a cost to discipleship. Or if you read Jesus' instruction to Ananais to go and tell Saul what great things he must suffer for His name sake, you will know there is a cost to discipleship. How else could one be a real disciple without identifying with the suffering of Christ, or without the opportunity to glorify Christ through the manifestation of His character in very hostile surroundings?

But what if you are not a determined disciple, just a friend of Jesus? Would you expect to be treated the same way? Probably not, but you might expect to be treated somewhat similarly; take Mary, Martha and Lazarus, siblings from Bethany, for example.

They did not follow Jesus around Judea but they were good friends, in fact, the Bible says Jesus loved them, which would indicate a special bond beyond the ordinary love that He has for us all. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Yet, despite this love, Jesus did not respond to Mary and Martha's call for help. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 

So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

What do you suppose was going through Mary and Martha's minds as Jesus ignored their request? They knew Jesus was special, that He had an amazing relationship with God, that God would give Him anything He asked. But He didn't ask; He didn't even bother to come until Lazarus had been dead for days. What were they thinking? 

What was Jesus thinking? Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

Obviously, Jesus had a plan. It wasn't obvious to any of His disciples, nor was it obvious to Mary and Martha. They loved Jesus, and couldn't understand why he was so late coming to them. Nevertheless, they were kind in their words though one suspects a little bit of latent hostility when first Martha then Mary greeted Him with, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

Then we see the reason why Jesus delayed His coming until it seemed too late:

Jesus said to her (Martha), “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”


She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Martha's eyes had been opened to a more complete revelation of Who Jesus really is. But Mary arrives and repeats Martha's accusation:

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”


And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus wept, not for Lazarus, but for the suffering of Mary and the others who still did not get Who Jesus really is. 

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”


Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Mary and Martha and the others with them received the great blessing of an extraordinary revelation of Who Jesus is. They endured several days of intense grief and suffering before it came, but they would never doubt Jesus again. 

I had a similar experience where I asked God to prove Himself to me. He did! It was nothing short of terrifying how He did it, but I have not in 30 years doubted Him since, nor will I in the next 30 years. 

Do you have doubts about Jesus? Are you willing to allow God to prove Himself to you. He won't if you put limits on how He must do it - that means you don't trust Him. He won't prove Himself to you if you don't trust Him - that is not faith!

When I asked God to prove Himself, I asked Him to protect my family; He did. He even protected me though the odds on my surviving that experience were very poor. I walked away without a scratch.