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Jonathan Merritt: A New Generation of Religion and Politics

Jonathan Merritt, national spokesperson for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, says younger evangelicals are interested in a broader range of issues than their parents.

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| Comments (3)
Categories: Evangelical , Politics

3 Comments

Great interview Johnathan. As a young evangelical myself (24) I really resonated with your perspectives on creation care and the "pro life" stance. Another way I've heard it put is that we shouldn't only be "pro birth" but "pro life" in every sense of the word.

ethan said:

Great stuff Jonathan- really well-spoken. By the way, who'd you end up voting for, in no uncertain terms?

David Johnson said:

Dear Jonathan,

How sad that you're allowing yourself to be used as a spokesman by the left. Sadder still that, because ego trips can be so much fun, you're totally blinded to this fact.

Name recognition can be a doubled-edged sword. It puts you ahead of others in getting your voice heard. But it also puts you on a bigger stage than you're prepared to handle.

Your Dad is a brilliant man who was quite the preacher in his day. Having sat under his ministry for 15 years, and knowing what he used to stand for, I can only hope that you and he are not in agreement.

You wax poetically about caring for the poor, the environment, and the true meaning of being "pro life." Yet your solutions to these are naive and overly simplistic, which is not surprising given your lack of maturity and life experience.

As a member of the washed-up, over-40 evangelical crowd, I realize I need to step aside for the more enlightened emergent church.

You refer to your generation as the "evangelical stuck in the middle." That immediately brought to mind what your Dad used to say about people who tried to sit on the fence and have it both ways. "If you stand in the middle of the road, you'll get hit from both directions."

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