What we American Christians need now is a fresh dose of Red Letter Religion. This might pull us back from much that keeps us from being the influential moral spiritual presence that is needed in the world today.
Red Letter Religion derives its name from the way some publishers print their Bibles: with the words of Jesus printed in red. Not all Bibles are this way, because it is more expensive; but many modern translations of the Bible are published by somebody with the words of Jesus in red.
Posted above is a picture I took of the first Bible I ever bought. I must have been about 15, newly committed to a life of gospel ministry. It is a King James Version, published by A. J. Holman Company of Philadelphia. It includes a dictionary and concordance with maps. Many verses are underlined, and the margins feature my youthful notes. In the front fly leaf is the inscription: “’tis the set of the sail, and not the gale, that determines the way we go.” I don’t know where that came from, but it has inspired me many times since I penned it there.
Most important, the words of Jesus are printed in red, from “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) to “If I will that he tarry ‘till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me” (John 21:22).
Those are from the four gospels; but there are red letter words in The Acts of the Apostles and also First Corinthians and The Revelation.
Red Letter Religion derives from a movement launched by the late, great scholar and activist Tony Campolo in or about 2007. Joining him in this effort were Jim Wallis of Sojourners fame and influence and, in more recent days, Shane Claiborne.
Red Letter Religion appealed to me from the beginning. By “the beginning” I mean my reading the book In His Steps when I was 14 years old. I don’t know how that fell into my hands, but I do know the novel was written in 1896 by a minister, Charles Monroe Sheldon. It was first published in 1896 and has sold more than 50 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.
The novel popularized the question, What Would Jesus Do? This question became a thing a few decades ago and swept the Evangelical world with trinkets of all kinds bearing that phrase or its initials WWJD.
The question is a fair representation of Red Letter Religion, arising from that most fundamental of all Jesus commands, “Come, follow me.” That command, and the question, and the red letters constituted the essence of my youthful commitment to the way of Jesus. It pulled me past my childhood baptism to a serious devotion to Jesus, not the “I repent of my sins and trust Jesus as my savior” type but the “I seek to make Jesus Christ the lord and master of my living” type.
Reading the red letters and allowing them to shape our religion is not a bad way to be a Christian. In fact, there may be no other way, in spite of what Christian leaders and churches tell us. Some emphasize public liturgy and sacred rituals, things that were very much secondary to the red letter Jesus. Others pull from portions of the Bible that do not feature Jesus; they describe prayer languages, and words of wisdom, and prophecies. My own tradition makes a big deal out of immersion, and democratic decision-making, and the separation of church and state.
These days, many people are pulling the people of Jesus into the political process, seeking to exercise power from what they call the seven mountains of cultural influence: business and education, family and religion, media, arts and entertainment, and government. It is hard to find in the red letter religion of the gospels any hint of such ambition.
Which is why those who embrace such a version of Christianity find themselves endorsing things in the name of Jesus that many of us find odd, even repulsive. Their political and religious agenda can be summed up nicely as helping the rich and hurting the poor, welcoming the white but deporting the brown, blessing the strong and ignoring the weak, and believing the lies and suppressing the truth.
Will Red Letter Religion be an effective pushback against this counterfeit Christianity now ascendant all around us? I don’t know, but because it is rooted in our Bibles new and old and reflects the life and teaching, the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, it is worth the effort.
My effort, at least, and perhaps yours, as well.
What we American Christians need now is a fresh dose of Red Letter Religion. This might pull us back from much that keeps us from being the influential moral spiritual presence that is needed in the world today.
Red Letter Religion derives its name from the way some publishers print their Bibles: with the words of Jesus printed in red. Not all Bibles are this way, because it is more expensive; but many modern translations of the Bible are published by somebody with the words of Jesus in red.
Posted above is a picture I took of the first Bible I ever bought. I must have been about 15, newly committed to a life of gospel ministry. It is a King James Version, published by A. J. Holman Company of Philadelphia. It includes a dictionary and concordance with maps. Many verses are underlined, and the margins feature my youthful notes. In the front fly leaf is the inscription: “’tis the set of the sail, and not the gale, that determines the way we go.” I don’t know where that came from, but it has inspired me many times since I penned it there.
Most important, the words of Jesus are printed in red, from “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) to “If I will that he tarry ‘till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me” (John 21:22).
Those are from the four gospels; but there are red letter words in The Acts of the Apostles and also First Corinthians and The Revelation.
Red Letter Religion derives from a movement launched by the late, great scholar and activist Tony Campolo in or about 2007. Joining him in this effort were Jim Wallis of Sojourners fame and influence and, in more recent days, Shane Claiborne.
Red Letter Religion appealed to me from the beginning. By “the beginning” I mean my reading the book In His Steps when I was 14 years old. I don’t know how that fell into my hands, but I do know the novel was written in 1896 by a minister, Charles Monroe Sheldon. It was first published in 1896 and has sold more than 50 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.
The novel popularized the question, What Would Jesus Do? This question became a thing a few decades ago and swept the Evangelical world with trinkets of all kinds bearing that phrase or its initials WWJD.
The question is a fair representation of Red Letter Religion, arising from that most fundamental of all Jesus commands, “Come, follow me.” That command, and the question, and the red letters constituted the essence of my youthful commitment to the way of Jesus. It pulled me past my childhood baptism to a serious devotion to Jesus, not the “I repent of my sins and trust Jesus as my savior” type but the “I seek to make Jesus Christ the lord and master of my living” type.
Reading the red letters and allowing them to shape our religion is not a bad way to be a Christian. In fact, there may be no other way, in spite of what Christian leaders and churches tell us. Some emphasize public liturgy and sacred rituals, things that were very much secondary to the red letter Jesus. Others pull from portions of the Bible that do not feature Jesus; they describe prayer languages, and words of wisdom, and prophecies. My own tradition makes a big deal out of immersion, and democratic decision-making, and the separation of church and state.
These days, many people are pulling the people of Jesus into the political process, seeking to exercise power from what they call the seven mountains of cultural influence: business and education, family and religion, media, arts and entertainment, and government. It is hard to find in the red letter religion of the gospels any hint of such ambition.
Which is why those who embrace such a version of Christianity find themselves endorsing things in the name of Jesus that many of us find odd, even repulsive. Their political and religious agenda can be summed up nicely as helping the rich and hurting the poor, welcoming the white but deporting the brown, blessing the strong and ignoring the weak, and believing the lies and suppressing the truth.
Will Red Letter Religion be an effective pushback against this counterfeit Christianity now ascendant all around us? I don’t know, but because it is rooted in our Bibles new and old and reflects the life and teaching, the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, it is worth the effort.
My effort, at least, and perhaps yours, as well.
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