Tony Campolo writes, “Gandhi once said that everybody in the world knows what Jesus teaches in those red lettered verses — except Christians.” And Wikipedia’s page on Red Letter Christians states, “’Red-Letter’ refers to New Testament verses printed in red letters to emphasize the actual words that Jesus spoke …While many Christians have defined themselves as such over the years, a mass-market movement was initiated by authors Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis who felt the religious right spend too much time on two issues: abortion and homosexuality. They believe Christians should be promoting biblical values such as peace, building strong families, the elimination of poverty, and other important social justice issues.” Albert Mohler’s Culture Shift provides plenty of evidence for why we need Campolo’s Red Letter Christian Movement.
While Mohler delves into some other issues beside abortion and homosexuality, a huge chunk is dedicated to those two issues. Before I dive into what I disliked about the book, I should mention that I was rather impressed with Mohler’s discussion on offensiveness found in the chapter “The Culture of Offendedness”, his chapter on character and his chapter discussing the dangers of modern technology. The latter reminded me of Nicholas Carr’s fascinating and well researched The Shallows, which I highly recommend. Also, I could not agree more with Mohler’s arguments in his last chapter “Redefining Retirement” where he states “There is room in the Christian life for leisure—but not for a life devoted to leisure. As long as we have the strength and ability to serve, we are workers needed in Christ’s kingdom.” (p. 185) In the rest of the book however, I see much of the same overly conservative religious right dogma promoting an agenda that has little to do with what it means to be a follower Jesus.
For example, the following two statements are worrisome, “Islam is the single most vital competitor to Western ideals of civilization on the world scene.” (p. 154) and “Islam and the West offer two very different and fundamentally irreconcilable visions of society.” (p. 155) Does this mean that we are to blindly accept that western ideology is actually what Christ intends for us? I was recently at an event where I saw a former US army soldier wearing a shirt that read, “God > U.S.”. When Mohler completely leaves God out of the equation with “Islam is the single most vital competitor to Western ideals of civilization on the world scene”, isn’t he in fact saying “U.S. > God”? I believe that we Christians need to build bridges with Islam and the entire world. Mohler rather, chooses to reinforce a paradigm of Islam phobia that we desperately need to break out of!
Mohler discusses atheism alluding to the Four Horseman of atheism: Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Mohler tells us that both Dawkins and Harris believe religion to be dangerous to society. Mohler however, does not dissect this statement to determine whether it might actually be true. Being a Christian myself and thinking about the statement, “Religion is dangerous” I have to side with the atheists. Isn’t it fair to say that the crusaders of the middle- ages who killed countless infidels did so in the name of religion? Isn’t it fair to say that the people blowing up abortion clinics are doing so in the name of religion and those flying airplanes into tall buildings as well as those driving vans into buildings loaded with explosives are doing these things because of religion. Personally, I believe Dawkins and Harris have hit the nail on the head!
Of course, Jesus did not come to start a new religion. He came to provide a way for us to have a relationship with him—with God. Moreover, he came to model how we are supposed to live our lives, which includes “loving our enemies.”
Also in this chapter on atheism Mohler “draw[s] a straight line from the emergence of evolutionary theory to the resurgence of atheism in our times.” (p. 162) Personally, I find it laughable that Christians continue to be threatened by evolution. Francis Collins’ The Language of God is a refreshing read for those that struggle with reconciling their Christian faith with evolution. Moreover, I honestly believe this is a fear driven issue that really deflects our attention away from the issues of the poor and oppressed in our society.
Most of Mohler’s book views the world through the lens of fear: the fear of terrorism; the fear of evolution; the fear of atheism; the fear of homosexuality; the fear of science; the fear of technology. Fear creates a culture of judgment and insecurity rather than love. We have a God who has conquered fear! Hallelujah!! And because He has conquered fear we need not fear but rejoice in the freedom to love…love those that do not agree with us and even those that would do us harm.
I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
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