In Becoming Whole, Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic relate this horrendous story of Christian charity gone bad:
"A large Christian organization gives away tons of used clothing to poor communities around the world. The organization pins tracts about Jesus' love to the front of each piece of clothing. In addition to potentially damaging the dignity and capacity of the clothing recipients, dumping used clothing into a village can depress clothing prices, drive local tailors out of business, and undermine the village's economy, thereby reducing the availability of jobs. In other words, this organization is using a strategy that undermines work.... When I asked the head of this organization for his feelings about this, he replied:
"Yes, but who cares? We don't really care about the local economy. It's all going to burn up anyway. We just want people to know that Jesus loves them, no matter what the cost, so that they can trust in Him for salvation. The eternal destiny of their souls is at stake. That's all that matters." (p.100)
Can you imagine being so callous about destroying the economy of an entire community? One which is suffering so much already?
This mindset is an example of what Darrow Miller calls "Evangelical Gnosticism" - seeing God's sphere of influence as being exclusively in the spiritual domain while material/physical existence is dismissed as ultimately unimportant.
It demonstrates a wholesale neglect of the Kingdom of God's central position within the gospel.
"Evangelical Gnosticism" is rampant across the American church.
It's a solid label, but there's got to be a better one. This terrible line of thought needs to be identified if it's going to be dismantled and "Evangelical Gnosticism" as an identifier is never going to catch on with believers at large.
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