April 8, 2002
Campolo: War on terror hurts missions
___By Steve DeVane
___N.C. Biblical Recorder
___CHARLOTTE, N.C.--The United States' war on terrorism could set missions back 1,000 years, according to popular author and speaker Tony Campolo.
___Campolo, professor of sociology at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., told a North Carolina Baptist Men's conference in Charlotte that Jesus called Christians to be peacemakers.
___But since Sept. 11, Campolo said, it has become taboo to quote Jesus even in church.
TONY CAMPOLO
___"I'm not sure we want to hear about this Jesus who says, 'Those who live by the sword die by the sword' as we engage in a military buildup," he said. "I'm not sure we want to hear of a Jesus who says, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.'"
___The American government has said it won't negotiate in the war on terrorism, Campolo said.
___"What's our answer to terrorism?" he asked. "It's going to set missions back a thousand years. We're going to kill them. We're going to root them out and kill them."
___That response is like trying to get rid of malaria by killing mosquitoes, he said. "You get rid of malaria by destroying the swamps in which the malaria mosquitoes are bred. There's a swamp out there called poverty and injustice."
___Campolo said he is tired of "big-time evangelists" calling Islam an evil religion.
___"You say, 'But they quote it right out of the Koran,'" he said. "I can quote out of the New Testament and the Old Testament and make our faith a violent religion. I would not want you to take those passages and make my God into a violent destructive God who goes around calling his people to murder others."
___Campolo told of how St. Francis of Assisi left the Christian army during the Crusades, went to the tent of a sultan leading the Muslim army and tried to win him to faith in Christ.
___"He didn't succeed, but the sultan said, 'If all Christians were like you, Mr. Francis, we wouldn't be here today.'"
___Jesus called Christians to work for justice, Campolo insisted.
___"If we're going to win that Muslim world to Christ, we cannot make stupid statements about their religion and we cannot, in fact, engage in a holy war against them."
___Campolo said he is worried because American Christians have taken off their What Would Jesus Do? bracelets and replaced them with American flags.
___"People, I love this country," he said. "It's the best Babylon on the face of this earth, but it's still Babylon. This is not the kingdom of God, and my ultimate allegiance belongs to Jesus. And so does yours."
___Campolo described himself as a "pro-Israel evangelical," but he spoke against some of Israel's actions in its conflict with the Palestinians. The fact that the people of Israel are "the chosen of God" does not make them immune from injustice, he added.
___"When they send tanks into the West Bank and level 70 houses in retaliation to some madman setting off a bomb in Tel-Aviv, they're using Hitler-like tactics," Campolo said. "I am suggesting that those who do not speak out for justice for the Palestinians have no right to talk about freedom and justice for the Jews, because I've got to tell you that God loves the Palestinians every bit as much as he loves the Jews."
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