Hurricane Campolo

by Fr. Daniel Sparks ~ September 11, 2005. Filed under: Faith & Church.

Tim Bayly pegs Tony Campolo (of “You can’t be a Christian and drive a BMW” infamy) for denying God’s omnipotence.

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2 Responses to Hurricane Campolo

  1. Wannabe (Newbie) Anglican
    September 13, 2005 at 9:04 pm CST

    Wow! Thanks for posting this. This is the first I’ve heard about this.

    I’m no fan of Campolo. But it might be that he was intending to state the Rabbi’s views and not necessarily his own. In which case, Campolo is guilty of sloppy writing.

    I’ll be interested to hear if Tony C. “clarifies” this.

  2. Fr. Daniel
    September 13, 2005 at 9:31 pm CST

    Mark, yes, he was stating the rabbi’s views. But, he did more than repeat those views; he suggested that we should embrace them (emphasis added):

    Perhaps we would do well to listen to the likes of Rabbi Harold Kushner, who contends that God is not really as powerful as we have claimed. Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures does it say that God is omnipotent. Kushner points out that omnipotence is a Greek philosophical concept, but it is not in his Bible. Instead, the Hebrew Bible contends that God is mighty. That means that God is a greater force in the universe than all the other forces combined.

    So, in Kushner’s view, God is mighty but not almighty. If that’s the idea Campolo wants me to take up, I’d rather stick to orthodoxy.

    By the way, Campolo’s article is here.

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