By Samuel Smith, The Christian Post.
Institute on Religion and Democracy Evangelical director Chelsen Vicari speaks at the Family Research Council on April 1, 2015 in Washington, D.C. (PHOTO: THE CHRISTIAN POST/SAMUEL SMITH)
Evangelical churches need to focus more on preaching biblical truth in order to prepare children to defend historic Christian teachings on social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion from the “distorted” theology being propagated by the Christian left, evangelical author Chelsen Vicari said Wednesday.
At a Family Research Council discussion on her new book, Distorted: How The New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging Faith, Vicari explained that as more mainline Protestant denominations are starting to affirm same-sex relationships and other issues that Christ has labeled as sinful, young Evangelicals are susceptible to caving in and embracing the liberal agenda that they encounter on college campuses and in youth groups, because they don’t know enough about the Scripture to defend its guiding principles.
Vicari, who’s the evangelical program director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, shared her own story about how when she was going through her undergraduate studies, her strong conservative Christian convictions were tested and ostracized by left-leaning Christian groups on campus. She eventually folded her convictions to believe that it’s acceptable for Christians to be accommodating toward sinful behavior, such as homosexuality.
Although Vicari rediscovered her Christian conservative principles after going to the evangelical Regent University for graduate school, she said many other young Evangelicals are dealing with their own hardships as they are being called “homophobic” and “bigots” when promoting the Bible’s teachings on highly contested social issues. She added that young Evangelicals are more likely to buy into the Christian left’s notion that, if they want to be “compassionate” like Jesus, they need to be more accommodating and compromising on same-sex relationships and abortion.
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This church could still be saved, but it is going to take aggressive coordinated action and encouragement.
The new Lutheran Church is being awarded huge federal grants to co-ordinate resettlement of thousands of Syrians being funneled into the USA. The Lutheran brand and non-profit status and reputation for humanitarian concerns is a key to making this work. Has the church been exploited? You decide.