For Faith & Family | Red Letter Christians? | Comments

Comment 1

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:01:13 CST

Thank you so much for going over the emerging church movement. We already encountered this group in our Southern Baptist church we were at for over 20 years. We were using the books of these people for our sermons and s.s. classes. It saddened me when I tried to warn some in leadership, and they didn’t find anything wrong with this. I really believe this is becoming a problem in our churches, and I think finally some are starting to try and confront this. Thank you again for addressing this on your show. Kim Petty

Comment 2

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:25:58 CST

Lord forbid that we focus on the words of Jesus? I am Canadian where state and Church are separate, and thank God it is. If Jesus came back and saw the state of Christianity he would lose it. I am not happy with abortions or gay people but you know what they are here to stay. We sport 3 piece suits on the way to church as we drive past the homeless man on the street. Jesus didn’t dress fancy, but he did help the poor. The Red Letter Christians from what I know are just trying to drag us convoluted Christians back to reality. Pot-lucks and singing only help those who are in the Church, they don’t help those who can’t make it there. Maybe we should focus on the Red Letters…

Comment 3

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:05:04 CST

What those leaders of the religious right who are heavily involved in republican politics have written about this movement surprise me.

We “red letter christians” are not pro abortion, we are stating that to stop abortion’s most adamant reasons for being used we need to address the 2 most basic reasons women seeking abortions state for their choice to abort: Poverty and domestic violence. Our focus is to address the source not the after affect of a problem.

As one of our speakers stated-we can keep saving people from drowning in the river by the 1000’s but eventually we need to go up river and see who is throwing them in.

Nita

Comment 4

Thu, 17 May 2007 04:14:38 CST

Is Jesus Republican? Why take all baptist there? I attended baptist church for 5 years and There weren’t that many that would have benefited from Republican agenda. Now I go to a progressive church and there are many there that will benefit from Republicans. They are likely republicans but no one was talking politics.

Comment 5

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:31:41 CST

Brethren, which part of Matthew 25:45 are we confused about? “As you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

Comment 6

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:56:44 CST

I was so excited to see this “red letter Christian” movement. I had always beleived in this philosophy, focusing primarily on the words of Jesus. It wasn’t until last night, while watching the Colbert Report, that I knew there was an actual movement involving church leaders in this country. It’s great. Yeah, we dont beleive in abortion, or same sex relationships, but that doesn’t mean we cannot love them, or that those people cannot know Jesus. I am a teacher too, so to hear a group of Christians in the public eye saying we need to focus on the poor and education was a breath of fresh air. Let’s spread the love of God peacefully like Jesus did without condenming others. Even Paul said we cannot say who is going to heaven or hell because that would be to bring Christ down.

Comment 7

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:15:58 CST

I’m for it. I’m tired of being looked at like a pagan for being in church and NOT being a Republican. I can go down a list of issues in any election and only end up with 2 (at the most) in which I agree with the Republican stand. I think Jesus cared about the poor, the sick, the hopeless, the fatherless. He called us to be stewards, peacemakers, merciful people. He called us to radical forgiveness! He didn’t call us to war, to torture, to lying, to spying, to suspecting each other, to shouting at each other for expressing a different view. If the Red Letter Christians are the ones looking at what Jesus said (see Sermon on the Mount folks!) then I guess I’m one of them. All the Bible is important, but I’ll listen to what Jesus said over what some religious or political leader today says.

Comment 8

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:26:05 CST

I am excited by the “Red Letter” movement, a truly back-to-basics agenda based on scripture.

Comment 9

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:32:24 CST

How good it is that other folks can see what the book says you search the word for salvation but the word tells only about Jesus so his words are the most important thing to me.as for the poor Im poor in money me and my wife live my SSD of 790.00 a month but IM am rich in faith,hope,that at his return he shall come all you blessed of LORD.

Comment 10

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:16:36 CST

I was excited to hear of the red letter Christian movement, something I have believed in for many years.

I have to admit I lost faith in Christian religion (not Christian faith) after the almost total takeover by the religious right, and the hate-centered, divisionist thinking they seem to focus on. Even my own former church - which was full of many good-hearted people of both liberal and conservative persuasions--had nothing but authoritarian, controlling, black and white thinkers at the helm. I could no longer support this hierarchy. I hope that along with the focus on Jesus’ teaching, Christians will also spend some time studying just how our religion got turned on its head. We do need to guard against the thinking that turned us from a basic teaching of love, forgiveness and service to our all of our brothers and sisters into a seemingly political agenda devoted to a few issues that amount to just controlling people’s behavior.

Comment 11

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:21:57 CST

It was by complete coincidence that I came to even learn what a “Red Letter Christian” was.

I saw the term on one of my friend’s facebook accounts, and I was curious. I did some research and discovered that this group completely encompassed my views of what Christianity really is.

I get very angry when I see groups like the Westboro Baptist Church parading around disguised as Christians. Not to say that all churches are this discriminating, but not many speak out against such disgraceful ideology.

I can proudly say that I am now a Red Letter Christian. I know I have a relationship with Jesus, and with the basic values of love and acceptance, I can reach out to everyone...Christian or not. That is what Christianity is about.

Comment 12

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:06:24 CST

Actually, the comment is incorrect. Red letter Christians are merely touting an old foundational idea of exegesis. If we want to understand the Bible, we let Jesus interpret the Old Testament, and we let Jesus’ words take precedence over Paul’s. It’s really that simple. It’s not a matter of excluding the black letters, just of putting in their proper priority. In other words, Christianity is primarily the religion of Christ, not Moses or Paul. They come second.

Comment 13

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:51:07 CST

Friend IGSpong, thank you for that thought. It puts an interpretation into the mix that I hadn’t thought of, and which makes a good deal of sense.
R

Comment 14

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:39:47 CST

I came across the Red letter concept a few years ago.

I love it!

With all respect to the OP and the danger of “dalmation theology” history teaches us that the bible can be used to justify almost any political position from Mother Theresa to Adolf hitler passing through slavery and Genocide on the way.

The red letters, however, are clear, unambiguous and inescapable. None of the religious “errors” of the last 200 years would have been feasable to “red letter” christianity.

And, frankly, i DO consider the Words of Jesus to be more profound than the rest. The rest of the bible is written by people inspired by God. Jesus WAS God.

I DO consider the bible to be inerrant. However it is abundantly clear that our interpretation of it is far from that. I think the red letters are hardest to misinterpret

Blessings from lil old England

Comment 15

Sun, 04 May 2008 08:45:20 CST

I am a senior, white, lifelong Southern Baptist, native Texan who left the Southern Baptist denomination because of their support for GW Bush and the bush attack on the people of Iraq. I hadn’t realized how far we had gone from the words Jesus spoke. As a child and young man I gave my highest priority to the letters in red but over a period of many years I, along with many other people in the churches I was a part of wandered away from Jesus. The Bush administration and the tradegy in Iraq/Afganistan are opposites of what he spoke. Now I am back to the brginning of my relationship with Jesus. I am a Red Letter Christian.

Comment 16

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:15:29 CST

I was a Baptist for the first 61 years of my life. I am no longer. I’m so glad to read the above posts. I always knew we were somehow explaining away the true impact of the ‘red letter bits.’ As a child I was told that the Sermon on the Mount was for the literal reign of Christ on the earth. Being a Red Letter Christian is compatible with the rest of Scripture. Looking at our current administration--one that most Christians support--with it’s policies of preemptive war, torture, deception, election fraud, breaks and more breaks for the wealthy and corporations--one must realize that this represents something other that biblical values from Gen. to Rev. Jeremiah’s words ring true today: “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?” (Jer. 5:30,31

Comment 17

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:36:11 CST

I was very thankful to have discovered the book “Red Letter Christians”. There are a few areas in which I disagree with Dr. Campolo (very few), but the spirit of the book has targeted what I have felt in this Presidential election. I am disgusted by those who claim Christianity, but yet go against the very spirit of Jesus, especially in their racist remarks. On both sides, lying and slandering has taken over until I feel like weeping. However, unfortunately, I have noted most of the negativity and blatant ugliness coming from the right, the very side proporting to abide by God, country, and family.
I was getting tired of reading negative comments about Christianity, although, in hindsight, it gave me reasons to DEFEND what I believe is the true spirit of Jesus’s teachings. The meaing and image of Christianity has been twisted, manipulated, and misrepresented by the radicals much like the heart and soul and true meaning of the Koran has been misrepresented by Muslim extremists.