Gordon McDonald Gets It

I am not familiar with Gordon McDonald the evangelist, but he gets it. In his piece on Pastor Ted Haggard he writes on http://www.christianitytoday.com

"Ever since the beginning of the Bush administration, I have worried over the tendency of certain Evangelical personalities to go public every time they visited the White House or had a phone conference with an administration official. I know it has wonderful fund-raising capabilities. And I know the temptation to ego-expansion when one feels that he has the ear of the President. But the result is that we are now part of an evangelical movement that is greatly compromised—identified in the eyes of the public as deep in the hip pockets of the Republican party and administration. My own belief? Our movement has been used.

There are hints that the movement—once cobbled together by Billy Graham and Harold Ockenga—is beginning to fragment because it is more identified by a political agenda that seems to be failing and less identified by a commitment to Jesus and his kingdom. Like it or not, we are pictured as those who support war, torture, and a go-it-alone (bullying) posture in international relationships. Any of us who travel internationally have tasted the global hostility toward our government and the suspicion that our President's policies reflect the real tenants of Evangelical faith.

And I might add that there is considerable disillusionment on the part of many of our Christian brothers/sisters in other countries who are mystified as to where American evangelicals are in all of this. Our movement may have its Supreme Court appointments, but it may also have compromised its historic center of Biblical faith. Is it time to let the larger public know that some larger-than-life evangelical personalities with radio and TV shows do not speak for all of us?"

Very true Mr. McDonald; except is seems that most of these guys (Falwell, Robertson, LaHaye, Rick Scarborough) are more driven by their own egos and pocketbooks than they are by God. They protect their diamond mines and lear jets, cherish their Presidential photo-ops, preach against issues like gambling while supporting gambling lobbyist, spend more time bashing Gay and Lesbian families and Americans than they do supporting heterosexual Christian families; are too busy advising our families to look inside at their own, fail to understand that they turn people away from Christianity, do not represent many of us, and basically need to just shut up.

I agree with you, but to compare hypocrite TVangelicals like Foot in mouth Falwell or Gold Medalist Liar on the Legpress Pat Robertson to a Rev. Billy Graham is a huge stretch.