{"id":435,"date":"2006-11-29T11:32:42","date_gmt":"2006-11-29T09:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/2006\/11\/29\/but-he-loves-kids\/"},"modified":"2006-11-29T11:32:42","modified_gmt":"2006-11-29T09:32:42","slug":"but-he-loves-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/29\/but-he-loves-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"But He Loves Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago Bart Campolo (son of Tony) wrote an article in The Journal of Student Ministries<\/em> in which he said<\/a> some disturbing things, including:<\/p>\n

\n

Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article was since removed<\/a> by Youth Specialties because “we were concerned that the article could be more damaging than helpful.”  <\/p>\n

An web-only article at Christianity Today<\/a> noted that Bart was a national representative for Compassion International<\/a>.  This organization supports poor children in third-world countries and my family has been a supporter for some years.  I wrote Compassion to express my concerns that a guy with these views is representing their organization.  They wrote back with a form reply, in which they said this (in part):<\/p>\n

\n

While we appreciate and respect your concerns, please be aware Mr. Campolo is an avid supporter, just like you, in Compassion’s efforts to rescue children from the bondage of their impoverished circumstances. He has also signed Compassion International’s statement of faith in which he asserts he is a believer in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in the Bible as the one and only infallible word of God. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So the way off the hook is to say that Campolo signed a statement, therefore he is orthodox, therefore he can continue to represent the organization.  Does it bother anyone that his published article contradicts the signed statement<\/a> (points 1, 4, and 6)?  I see an ethical problem with both Bart and Compassion.  Bart thinks he can define which parts of the Bible he wants to believe and yet still hold to a statement of infallible Scripture.  Compassion apparently feels they need do no more than ask Bart if he agrees.  On that principle, Bart could write an article that claims that Jesus is not God but tell Compassion he holds to their doctrinal statement<\/a> and all would be well.  Shouldn’t Compassion consider published evidence that suggests that Bart does not actually believe the statement of faith?<\/p>\n

I’ll go further: if Bart said that (pick your ethnic group) were stupid, Compassion would remove him immediately.  But if he says that God is powerless to help the weak, there is no problem.  Bart makes no pretense as to how he developed his thinking about God:<\/p>\n

\n

I required no Bible to determine it, and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhonestly\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Such is the state of the American church.<\/p>\n

Bart’s article is no longer online but I have a copy and can email to people I know upon request.<\/p>\n

Now we have to decide whether to continue with Compassion or not.  In my opinion, it’s not a simple decision.  But if you’re not yet a supporter, I’d suggest you find a different organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago Bart Campolo (son of Tony) wrote an article in The Journal of Student Ministries in which he said some disturbing things, including: Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}