Christians 101

Revolutionary roots

Mike Yaconelli, the founder of Youth Specialties, spent 43 years of his life in ministry. Before he died on October 30, 2003, he said:

What is the deal with Christian colleges, anyway? Shouldn’t they be graduating students who are revolutionary, anti-institutional, anti-cultural extremists? Isn’t anyone else upset that most of our Christian colleges are graduating compliant, materialistic, irrelevant students who don’t have a radical bone in their bodies? Who will push the envelope in the generations to come?

I once did missions work where the brochure said the experience would develop a "radical commitment" to Christ. And it did. It was with Adventures in Missions. I found the above quote on the blog of their founder, Seth Barnes.

While I was out in the mission field, my husband was pursuing his "radical" roots by organizing unions. He and many others like him would love to be called "revolutionary, anti-institutional, anti-cultural extremists".

Why is it that these core values - wanting to make the world better and riding ourselves of the materialism so embedded in our culture - are not recognized by both sides as areas where we can (mostly) all agree?

posted by Elizabeth @ 7:11 PM