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Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, The: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?

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Let me throw a few stats at you...

The percentage of born-again Christians who have experienced divorce is the same as non-Christians. 90% of divorced born-again folk divorced after they accepted Christ.

In a 2002 study, it was discovered that only 6% of born-again adults tithe.

26% of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong. 13% say it is okay for married persons to have sex with someone other than one's spouse.

17% of evangelicals would object to having black neighbours move in next door.

Only 9% of born-again adults and 2% of born-again teenagers have a biblical worldview.

These situations and more are addressed in Ronald Sider's book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. Why is it that we see so little life change amongst those who consider themselves "born-again" Christians? For me, growing up, being "separate from the world" meant don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with girls that do. And while I believed (and still believe) that most of our evangelical rules have very little to do with authentic Biblical faith, the issues above represent blatant disobedience to scriptural directives.

Have we really embraced what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace? Sider believes we have done exactly that, and have turned salvation into a no-lose insurance policy against hell. Just say the sinners prayer and you'll be forgiven forever and there will be no other expectations put on you - we have promoted a "costless faith" as George Barna puts it. In Sider's words, "Salvation becomes, not a life-transforming experience that reorients every corner of life, but a one-way ticket to heaven, and one can live like hell until one gets there."

Sider goes on to consider the concept of the "Kingdom of God" and how Jesus' teaching on the kingdom was far more holistic than our simple get out of hell free card. A concept that Brian McLaren also addresses in The Secret Message of Jesus.

Sider concludes the book by looking at some of the positives that offer a ray of hope for the future. While I appreciate his attempt to end the book on a positive note, I'm afraid the strength of Sider's argument doesn't leave me with a lot of hope for change any time soon.

Why are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?

Thus begins the key question set forth by The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience by Ronald J. Sider. Sider is famous for his pinnacle work, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Written over 30 years ago, Sider brought the issues of social justice into the forefront of evangelical Christianity. Now with The Scandal, he prays that this book will renew evangelical resolve to live what we preach (p. 15).

The book is neatly divided into 5 chapters.

First, in Chapter 1, Sider describes the depth of the scandal. His raw data taken from the likes of Barna polls and newspaper articles serve to highlight the huge divide between what Christians preach and how they live. Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else only 6 percent of born-again Christians tithe racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seem to be worse in evangelical circles than elsewhere (p. 28). Clearly something is wrong with the evangelical world today.

Chapter 2 outlines a classic Sider approach as he surveys the New Testament in order to describe the biblical vision of being a follower of Jesus. We now come face-to-face with the sheer amount of biblical text calling us for costly obedience and radical discipleship. These matters are not optional, but are the marks of authentic Christianity.

In Chapter 3, Sider describes the faulty theological that has been taught and practiced today. He believes the concept of cheap grace has resulted in our hypocritical living. This concept of cheap grace is taken from Dietrich Bonhoeffer which reduces the gospel to forgiveness of sins; limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; misunderstand persons as primarily souls; at best, grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; embrace the individualism, materialism, and relativism of our current culture; lack a biblical understanding and practice of the church; and fail to teach a biblical worldview (p. 56).

Chapter 4 has some pertinent advice for the church at large. More specifically, Sider challenges the parachurch organizations. He believes that we must find a way to strengthen mutual accountability amongst the myriad of parachurch organizations in the world. As the founder of his own organization (Evangelicals for Social Action), he understands the need and the freedom for the parachurch. At the same time, he states that many of the worst, most disgraceful actions that embarrass and discredit the evangelical world come form this radical autonomy (p. 112). Admittedly, Sider doesnt know how to solve this problem. He does propose that the evangelical world must, in the next couple decades, find some new, concrete structures to provide greater accountability for evangelical parachurch organizations (p. 112).

Sider ends his book in Chapter 5 by suggesting Revelation 3:14-20 as a ray of hope. This was written to the church of Laodicea, urging them not to be lukewarm. The biblical worldview needs to form and reform evangelical Christianity today in order for us to close the gap between who we are and who God calls us to be.

In the end, I found this small book to be offer great insight and biblical teaching about the key issues surrounding Christianity as its practiced in the Western World.

For an alternative review, check out this article by Professor John Stackhouse of Regent College.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/004/12.20.html