Sunday, February 03, 2008

Amazing to see a NY Times columnist praising Evangelicals:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03kristof.html?ref=opinion

4 comments:

Jeff said...

What he said.

-Dave said...

I found the following line interesting: "Self-righteous zealots like Pat Robertson have been a plague upon our country, and their initial smugness about AIDS constituted far grosser immorality than anything that ever happened in a bathhouse."

At first, I was angry that he would defend sin. Then I realized that the "far grosser immorality" to which he was referring was the "you are getting what you deserve, you filthy sinners" attitude. And I agreed with him.

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. (Luke 6:26 NIV)

The "praise" for certain evangelicals is not praise aimed at God, but at human beings and their actions. As such, it's no different than any other kind of human-centered "praise." It's this that is warned against in the verse cited from Luke.

What's important to a Christian is this:
In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16 JB, emphasis added)

Kenny said...

Romanos,

I don't believe this is an instance of being praised as a false prophet.

Consider Paul's words in 1 Tim. 3:7 "(the elder) must also have a good reputation with outsiders..."

So, I believe that this editorial is an instance of Evangelicals "having a good reputation," as they should, if they are living out their Christian ethics.