Stark disconnect

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience Ronald J. Sider. Baker Books, 2005. Paper, 144 pages.

“Why are Christians living just like the rest of the world?” is the driving question in the latest book of Ronald J. Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. By way of statistics, Sider shows how frighteningly similar those who call themselves Christian are to society at large. Christians divorce as much as the world. We are as materialistic as the world, giving little toward poverty. We are as sexually disobedient, racist and physically abusive in marriage as the society we claim we are trying to change. There is a stark disconnect between how Christians are living and the biblical claim on our lives.

While this book is hard-hitting, it is not without hope. Sider paints a picture of how things could be and calls the church to be the church Jesus and the apostles ask it to be.

In his chapter “Conforming to the Culture of Being the Church,” I felt as though I was reading our MB Board of Faith and Life pamphlet, “Anabaptism: the Basic Beliefs.” Sider, who currently teaches at a Baptist institution, has roots in the Brethren in Christ tradition.

The book is short and can be read in little time. Its content, however, deserves our utmost attention and requires that people of faith not only go to their knees for the Christian communities of North America, but also rise up and begin to live and promote a faith that is active. One wouldn’t expect less from an author who founded Evangelicals for Social Action.

This book deserves a place on every Christian’s shelf.

Tom Friesen is youth pastor at Scott St. MB Church, St. Catharines, Ont.