cover image Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity

Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity

Charles Marsh. Oxford University Press, USA, $25 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-19-530720-7

Marsh (University of Virginia; The Beloved Community) enters the religion-and-politics fray in this provocative, and even prophetic, manifesto. In Marshs view, American evangelicals have sold their birthright to Republican politics, wholly abandoning the Gospels call for justice, peace, and mercy by supporting the war in Iraq. Evangelical leaders do not invite people to peace and reconciliation, but rather offer base and sinful thoughts disguised as moral values. Franklin Graham comes in for special attack: his call for the conversion of the Islamic world to Christianity is a chilling example of messianic ego unleashed on the world stage. What is Marshs solution? First, he calls the church to a season of silence, in which it will learn to be still and listen for Jesus, rather than contributing to the noisy political chatter that pervades our age. Second, noting the overwhelming extent to which evangelicals outside of America have decried the war, Marsh bids his fellow American Christians to become part of a truly global church, where the convictions of Christians in other places may be allowed to check the jingoism and imperialism Marsh finds in American churches. Marshs lively prose makes a brisk read. His gauntlet-throwing will anger some readers and inspire others.