RIP, Tony Campolo.
Died: Tony Campolo, Champion of ‘Red Letter’ Christianity - Christianity Today
Tony Campolo frequently started his speeches to Christian audiences by telling them three things.
First, he would tell them how many children had died from hunger or malnutrition-related diseases the night before—a number in the tens of thousands.
And Campolo would say, “Most of you don’t give a s—.”
Then: “What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘s—’ than the fact that thousands of kids died last night.”
Campolo, a progressive Christian leader who courted controversy challenging evangelicals to see caring for the poor as an integral part of proclaiming the gospel, died on Tuesday. He was 89.
I only saw a few of his speeches, but was impressed at his love of the common man. According to the article,
Born a second-generation Italian immigrant in 1935, Campolo had his first taste of social conflict in the church while growing up in Philadelphia. His family attended an American Baptist congregation in West Philadelphia, but it shut down when white people fled the city and their African American neighbors for the suburbs. Campolo’s father, Anthony Campolo Sr., decided not to follow. Instead, he took his family to a Black Baptist church nearby, and they worshiped there.
As a young pastor in his 20s, Campolo faced racism in the church again. He was working in a congregation near Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania, when General Electric opened a new research headquarters in the area, triggering a housing shortage. Black people in particular had trouble finding places to live. Campolo started pushing local leaders to fix the problem and soon found himself the head of a council working on fair and affordable housing.
The backlash was quick. Campolo was sharply criticized by white people in his congregation, who said he was going to hurt real estate value and the reputation of the church.
It was eye-opening for the young minister. “I did not expect that Christian people could be so openly racist,” he said.
“I surrendered my life to Jesus and trusted in him for my salvation, and I have been a staunch evangelical ever since,” Campolo wrote in 2015. “I believe the Bible to have been written by men inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. I place my highest priority on the words of Jesus, emphasizing the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus makes clear that on Judgment Day, the defining question will be how each of us responded to those he calls ‘the least of these.’”
A Baptist pastor and sociologist, Campolo attributed this vision to John Wesley. In a 2003 interview with Christianity Today, Campolo said he studied the founder of Methodism in a class on “Christian classics” when he was a student at Eastern College (now a university). He realized Wesley’s social activism wasn’t distinct from his conversion but deeply connected.
“The Wesleyan vision was warm-hearted evangelism with an incredible social vision,” Campolo said. “Out of this conversion grows the great Wesleyan revival with all of its social consciousness, attacking slavery, championing the rights of women, ending child labor laws.”
He is survived by his wife, Peggy, and their children, Lisa Goodheart and Bart Campolo.
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