Emergent Evangelical Prophet Tony Campolo
One can only wonder what Tony Campolo means by some of his radical statements he has made and the positions he takes. Some call him a prophet, others call him a heretic. Campolo is no stranger to this controversy, yet he continues to expand it, not reduce it. He has made a career of tackling Americas problems and solving them with his own opinions.
Campolo is a graduate of Eastern University and earned a Ph.D. from Temple University. He previously served for ten years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. Campolo is now professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.
He is the Founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE). He is educated man yet most see Campolo as a theological liberal and a radical political socialist whose teachings are far from a Christian distinctive, he can certainly be categorized by true evangelicals as aberrant.
After September 11, in a Wheaton College debate Campolo engaged with conservative activist Gary Bauer. Bauer responded, “I know this is hard for you to believe, but the enemy is not John Ashcroft, the enemy is Osama bin Laden.” “I’m not sure about that,” said Campolo,
Tony Campolo is a Change Agent whose vision is to change America’s churches, with radical new ideas that are not based from the Bible or its principles. Some things to know about Campolo associations: Campolo is on Renovaré’s “Board of Reference.” Renovaré is a New Age, ecumenical organization that practices the “meditative” and “contemplative” lifestyle “of early Christianity.
Campolo says, “I am saying that there is no salvation apart from Jesus, that’s my evangelical mindset. However, I’m not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians.”
“Jesus, is waiting, mystically and wonderfully, in every person I meet. I find Jesus everywhere. The difference between a Christian and non-Christian is not that Jesus isn’t in the non-Christian—the difference is that the Jesus who is within him is a Jesus to whom he will not surrender his life.”
“The minute you start saying that God isn’t in some people, you’re on the verge of Fascism. Why? Erich Fromm saw that. The minute you can look at somebody and say God isn’t in him—he is only in Christians—that person is pure demon.”
Campolo spoke at the National Counsel of Churches (a group whose intent is to have interfaith unity) gathering in May of 1988; where his message conveyed, “ He said that Hindu pacifist Ghandi “was more Christian than most Christians.”
Tony Campolo says he could envision a scenario where God—tired of the mess human beings created in this world-—would send beings from another planet to help people learn to love one another (in the Calvary Contender, 1/1/98).
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