Tony Campolo: I'm the Older Brother

I was at a Campus Ambassadors summer ministry conference in the mid 80's where Tony Campolo was our speaker. He was with us for a few days and shared many stories with us.

My favorite was about a funeral for a man who had died from Aids, early on when we were coming to terms with the epidemic. He read a psalm, and a new testament reading, then closed the Bible. The people who had gathered asked him to reopen the Bible, and requested other passages for him to read. It opened his eyes that a people that "God's people" were writing off were hungry for the true compassion of God. My inpterpretation of what Tony said.

I was delighted to see this from brother Tony in HuffPo. I feel the same way:

Tony Campolo: I'm the Older Brother: "That, I am sad to say, is much the same attitude that I, along with most of my conservative evangelical brothers and sisters, have had in reaction to President Obama's announcement that taxpayers' dollars, earned by hard-working, responsible citizens, would be given to help those irresponsible Americans who bought houses that they couldn't afford, while embracing a lifestyle that was beyond their means. With resentment, I, along with most of my rugged individualistic Christian friends, now sound like that older brother in Jesus' story, and call for those irresponsible spenders to get what they deserve. With an air of self-righteous indignation, we declare, 'They didn't do what's right and now we're being asked to rescue them from the financial mess that they've created for themselves!'"