Jeremy L. Berg

As an Evangelical pastor with degrees from Evangelical institutions pastoring an Evangelical church in an Evangelical denomination, I have struggled to make sense of where I fit on the Right-Left political spectrum. Do I lean Right? Do I lean Left? Am I a cowardly compromiser trying to carve out some conviction-less middle ground?

Tony Campolo came into my life twenty years ago and I am forever grateful for his voice that has called generations of Evangelicals to lean into the Red Letters of Jesus when it comes to our social-politics and Christian identity. I have never looked back.

Sadly, I lost track of Tony’s voice these past years while I’ve tried to navigate Evangelicalism in the era of Trump. Did he retire, stop podcasting, or no longer make public appearances? Or did I simply forget about him, finding other voices to take his place?

Coincidentally, I pulled his book off my shelf this past weekend (I’ve never read) called Letters to a Young Evangelical (2006) while looking for inspiration and guidance as I teach my college class that covers Christian social politics. I was immediately comforted by his wise and seasoned voice coming through the pages. Each chapter went down like a glass of warm milk on a cold snowy day.

I ran out of my study to tell Keri, “Man, I didn’t realize how much I have missed Tony’s voice these past years; I wonder where he’s been and how he’s doing?” I drank down a few more chapters on knotty topics such as transcending partisan politics, Evangelical views on abortion, and “Being Straight but Not Narrow” on LGBTQ+ relations.

So sane. So civil. So wise and full of conviction yet tempered by grace and humility. I put the book down and headed to bed, determined to get caught up on Campolo’s latest work in the morning and see if he still has a podcast. Keri then handed me her phone to read the headline just posted on Facebook: “Tony Campolo, Famed Red Letter Christian, has died at 89.”

I find it strange that my bosom began to burn for Tony’s compelling voice just hours before he left this earth. The Evangelical world needs his Red Letter influence more than ever right now. But he has completed his earthly work, and is now enjoying his heavenly reward and rest.

Perhaps God reconnected me with Tony’s voice as a way of telling me: “You, Jeremy, get to carry on his legacy as you call the next generation of Evangelicals a Christianity worthy of the Red Letters of Jesus.” Many slapped the label of “progressive Evangelical” on Tony, but he repeatedly would insist that he, like Jesus, transcends these Right vs. Left labels. “I am a Red Letter Christian,” would be his refrain until the very end.

This coming week I will once again be on campus in a classroom full of bright eyed (and sleepy-eyed) young adults. As I open my lecture on Biblical Justice, I will think of Tony’s life and legacy (and maybe even ask for his intercession – wink, wink) as I open the Red Letters and challenge my students with the words, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you don’t practice what I teach?”

Here’s a snippet from Christianity Today on Tony and be sure to watch this classic clip of Campolo on The Colbert Report.

FROM CHRISTIANITY TODAY:

Tony Campolo frequently started his speeches to Christian audiences by telling them three things.

First, he would tell them how many children had died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases the night before—a number in the tens of thousands.

And Campolo would say, “Most of you don’t give a s—.”

Then: “What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘s—’ than the fact that thousands of kids died last night.”

Campolo, a progressive Christian leader who courted controversy challenging evangelicals to see caring for the poor as an integral part of proclaiming the gospel, died on Tuesday. He was 89.

Campolo popularized the term red letter Christian—a reference to the way the words of Jesus are printed in many New Testaments—as an alternative to evangelical. He felt an alternative was needed because evangelicals had turned their backs on the good news, embracing right wing politics and comfortable, middle class conformity. But the best cure for evangelicalism’s ills, he said, was Jesus.

As he traveled relentlessly, speaking to up to 500 groups per year, Campolo urged people to let their lives be transformed by Jesus. And he told them that if their lives really were transformed, it would be good news for people who were hungry and oppressed.

“I surrendered my life to Jesus and trusted in him for my salvation, and I have been a staunch evangelical ever since,” Campolo wrote in 2015. “I believe the Bible to have been written by men inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. I place my highest priority on the words of Jesus, emphasizing the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus makes clear that on Judgment Day, the defining question will be how each of us responded to those he calls ‘the least of these.’”

Thank you, Tony. Your Red Letter movement lives on in countless leaders you have inspired and influenced.