Joel Edwards

Joel Edwards,who is standing down as Director of the Evangelical Alliance, spoke about evangelicals and the challenges we face at the recent launch of his new book. This is what he had to say:

In a forward-looking address, he said the heart of the matter was not about advancing evangelicalism as a political or Christian system, but was instead about “how we help people understand that God is ultimately the God of Good News and is interested in people’s wellbeing”.

Turning to some of the challenges facing evangelicals, he pointed to the commonplace view that evangelicals are a US export more interested in homosexuality than poverty, and a mascot for the Republican Party.

“Evangelicalism has a serious PR problem and it’s not hard to grasp why,” he said.

Referring to some of the recent angry protests from evangelical circles over Jerry Springer the Opera and the Sexual Orientation Regulations, Mr Edwards said that Evangelicals had gained a reputation as the “angry brigade”. “We are known more for our anger than our anguish,” he noted.

Mr Edwards said that the responsibility to reverse evangelicalism’s bad reputation lay with evangelicals themselves.

“If people are going to think differently about evangelicals, the only people who can change their minds are evangelicals,” he said.

You can read the full report at ChristianToday.com

He raises some interesting points. It seems to me that we are back to the issue of grace. If grace is primary, then perhaps our attitude and approach will have to change from the angry crowd to the compassionate crowd. If we stay angry, then judgement rules.

Who was it who observed that the problem with evangelicals is that everyone knows what they stand against but no one knows what they stand for.