Tuesday, May 13, 2008

An Evangelical ***yawn*** manifesto?

Evangelicals used to know how to craft a manifesto. The Lausanne Covenant of 1974 was a manifesto that basically defined modern Evangelicalism. On May 7, 2008, however, another group of Evangelicals released a document calling itself a "manifesto" that gives pause. Have Evangelicals lost their touch? Alan Jacobs, in "Come On, You Call This a Manifesto?" (Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2008), suggests that the 20-page document taxes patience, bores the imagination, and conveys a message that boils down to the appeal: "Please don't call us fundamentalists or confuse us with them." Puh-LEEEEZE ... That is like, just so ... yesterday. And how is this supposed to galvanize an increasingly somnolent Evangelical movement? What do these guys have in common with the Call to Action grey hairs with their "Call to Puppery" liturgies? They're fighting the now effectively irrelevant battles of the 60s and 70s. Wake up Neo. It's later than you think.

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