by Ingrid Schlueter and Rev. Wayne Sedlak
Excerpts from Renegade Prophet? A Look at the Teachings of Tony Campolo
to be released by VCY America Press. Copyright 1997 VCY America, Inc.

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Tony Campolo says he wants to see a world where there is tolerance and understanding. He elaborated on his desires on the January 24, 1997 Charlie Rose Show.

      "I think that what we need is a society in which people really believe what they say they believe. I am an evangelical to the core. What we've got to do is we've got to have people who are humble, who say this is what I believe and I believe it with all intensity, but I'm not about to make negative judgments about people who differ with me. Because on judgment day, I don't know who's in and who's out. I am not God, I do not decide who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. If we can stop making negative judgments about each other and simply express what we believe with intensity and passion, if we can do that we've got it made; people with passion who are non judgmental of others."1

Let's take a look at how Campolo's beliefs about a non-judgmental approach to issues are reflected in his own speech and writings. The following are citations from Dr. Campolo on various subjects:

      "ESA (Evangelicals for Social Action) cannot be silent while evangelicals are being tempted into hysterical animosity against gays and lesbians. And those of us who issued the Chicago Declaration II ought to have used this occasion to call the church to repentance for its homophobia. We should have condemned the discrimination against gays and lesbians that the church has steadily ignored."2 (emphasis added)

      "One of the meanest arguments against public schools comes from alarmists who contend that public school students can be forced to study under homosexuals and might even be subjected to homosexual seduction. This contention makes me furious--not because I believe there are no homosexuals in the public school system, but because of the implication that homosexuals are some kind of special threat to children. It is about time that those "homophobics" who spread false fears about homosexuals come up with sufficient evidence to prove their claim that these people are particularly dangerous in the classroom."3 (emphasis added)

      "One warm summer day many years ago, I was sitting in a park in Philadelphia. It was during the noon hour, and I was on a lunchbreak from my job. Sitting on a park bench just a few yards away was a young mother whose preschool children were playing on the sidewalk in front of me. As they played one of them discovered a group of ants crawling in and out of a crack in the cement. The little girl who made this discovery called to her sister to come and join her. After they trampled as many of them as possible, the two little girls got down on their knees and began to pick up the remaining insects and squeeze them between their fingers. Their laughter at the killing of those ants had a demonic quality to it. To be frank, I think it was demonic; I could sense the Evil One working through them, destroying life."4 (emphasis added)

      "I think that many of the despicable attitudes toward homosexuals stem from an ignorance of what science is discovering, as well as a lack of understanding as to what the Bible says."5 (emphasis added)

      "In all of this there is something dangerously close to the ravings of those New Age crazies who talk of their special communion with nature."6 (emphasis added)

      "We always must remind these phonies that our God loves us to party and even commands that we spend 10 percent of all our income (and I say it is 'before taxes') on such seeming frivolities."7 (emphasis added)

Dr. Campolo makes many negative judgments about those Christians who disagree with him. He refers to those who disagree with him on homosexuality in decidedly negative terms.

"What about homophobia?" he asks in a Prism Magazine article. "Chicago Declaration II was silent on Gay-Bashing."8(emphasis added)

He continues: "For me what is particularly disconcerting is that much of the hatred and discrimination directed towards gays and lesbians is not too subtly encouraged by some of the most prominent leaders of evangelical Christianity." (emphasis added)

In the pro-homosexual Record newsletter published by Dr. Ralph Blair, Dr. Campolo is quoted as saying, "The church should be the haven where (homosexuals) go for comfort, for strength and for encouragement. Instead it has become the place for the most bitter condemnation. I think the church has a lot of repenting to do, and it's not even close to it."9 (emphasis added)

It is clear that Tony Campolo is not content to allow others with differing views to co-exist peacefully with him. He wants others to change their views so that his personal vision of a biblical society can be brought about.

Campolo has acknowleged by his own words and writings that it's never a case of judgment versus no judgment. It's always a question of what kind of judgment is made. Tony Campolo says that his judgments are biblical.