iMonk has a blog worth reading entitled I’m Not On the Bus”. I pretty much agree with him, which might rile some who feel strongly about some of the issues he discusses.

“I want to be all about the Gospel. It’s my one interest in this business. I truly fear the totalizing tendencies of so many evangelicals who believe anything they do, think, write or sell is a moral obligation for real Christianity. I fear the people who are so easily manipulated by what they hear, read and see that they will mount a mini-crusade against those who differ with them. I fear the increasing assumption that in evangelicalism, there is a group-think bus for every topic from Harry Potter to feeding schedules for your infant.”

This article is worth quoting in its entirety …
Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

Evangelical Nuisances
by Ole Anthony and Skippy R.

Evangelicals are becoming a public nuisance. Like the lowrider Chevy that pulls up next to you, rattling your windows with a hip-hop wall of decibels from Public Enemy, channeled through 800-watt amps that are meant to say, “I have ARRIVED, buddy, and whatever you’re doing or thinking or listening to has got to give way to MY agenda.” Everybody hates those guys.

And everybody is starting to feel the same way about Christians. The momentum has been growing for years. Back in the ’90s, the book What America Believes asked the public to rank hundreds of societal groups. Televangelists ranked next to last, beating out only drug dealers. Now a recent Barna poll reports the public image of evangelicals as a whole ranks next to last, beating out only prostitutes and just behind lesbians.

Many of you heard the heart-wrenching news about the outing of Ted Haggard’s hidden sins. This comes after last year’s confession by Paul Cain that he struggled with homosexuality. Below is Mark Driscoll’s blog regarding Haggard. The original can be found at theresurgence.com/md_blog_2006-11-03_evangelical_leader_quits.

Pray for the Haggard family. Pray for the prostitute. Pray for the people at New Life Church. Pray for American Christians, who lose credibility when stories like this break. Pray that they are encouraged to live a worshipping, missional life regardless of the press. Pray that pre-disciples would be drawn to the Savior.