By Victor Ochieng
The Boston Declaration is out. This is a document signed by more than 300 Christian theologians who attended the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, an annual meeting that attracted close to 10,000 religion experts. In the document, the professionals are condemning rampant corruption in the Christian faith, something that has made Christianity appear worse than many other religions.
The leaders held a press conference in Boston’s famed Old South Church, where they called for serious repentance by Christians in the United States. The presenters, who were dressed in sackcloth and ashes, loudly condemned the distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ and warned that white American Evangelicalism is in crisis because it has clearly sidelined the gospel of 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 about the troubled Alabama Senate candidate and answering the question. “During difficult days in our nation, The Boston Declaration calls Christians to follow the Jesus Way, bearing prophetic witness to Christ through the fight against racism, sexism, poverty and all forms of oppression.”
One of the chief organizers of The Boston Declaration, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, Associate Dean at Boston University School of Theology, comparatively made it clear that the kind of gospel being peddled by the so-called Christians, including conservatives and politicians, today isn’t what’s provided for in the scriptures.
“We are here because Jesus taught us to ‘love our neighbor as ourselves,” she continued. “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 the abuse of women, the closing of our nation to the immigrant in need and the normalizing of lie after lie after lie.”
She didn’t end it there. Lightsey further said they gathered because America longs to hear from them and is keenly waiting to see how they’ll remain committed to the Christian faith even through the 2018 elections season.
Rev. Dr. David Wilhite, professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, even said he no longer can identify with “Evangelical,” stating that it’s a category that has “misrepresented Christianity. The heart of Evangelicalism is keeping the Gospel call at the heart of all we do.”
Speaker after speaker took a swipe at evangelicals and said the country needs to go back to preaching the true gospel given by Jesus Christ.
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