by Ronald J. Sider

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review by John Geib

THIS OPPORTUNITY to review Ronald J. Sider's The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience led me to read it seriously and discover it to be a very serious book. Much of Sider's call for revival is plausible and admirable. His book urges me to yield myself to the risen Christ more fully. My review has two parts—first a descriptive synopsis and then some personal reflections.

A Synopsis

The Introduction:h as the Gallup Organization and the Barna Group have used descriptive statistical surveys that seem to indicate evangelicals as a whole have recently been “…living almost as sinfully as their pagan neighbors” (14). Sider's book explores this crisis within evangelicalism, gives answers for its origins, and provides correctives to what he concludes is the scandal of the evangelical conscience.

Chapter 1—The Depth of the Scandal: on one of George Barna's surveys that distinguishes between “born-again” and “evangelical” and seeks to define who is a Christian. Sider concludes from survey data that there is “…widespread, blatant disobedience…” among those who claim to be evangelicals. The five areas of human behavior measured and used to reach this conclusion were divorce, materialism and the poor, sexual disobedience, racism, and spousal abuse in marriage.

Chapter 2—The Biblical Vision:s a trenchant overview of the New Testament documents in order to discover and recover what early Christians believed and practiced as normative Christianity. He documents that Jesus and the New Testament authors always expected a union of “orthodoxy” (right theology) and “orthopraxis” (right action) among true Christians. In light of his survey, Sider argues that a stark contrast exists between historic New Testament Christianity and the practices of contemporary evangelicals (31-32). He hopes that a realization of this contrast will lead to repentance and positive correction (53).

Chapter 3—Cheap Grace vs. the Whole Gospel:a “scandal of conscience” among evangelicals? The core of Sider's answer is that evangelicals have embraced a “…one-sided, unbiblical, reductionist understanding of the gospel and salvation” (57). Bonhoeffer called it “cheap grace” (56). And Ron Sider concludes that many within evangelical circles have reduced the gospel to a formula for the forgiveness of sins. This formula neglects the expected transformation of lives to reflect Jesus Christ, which Sider maintains is inherent within the New Testament definition of salvation (64-68). A by-product of this reduction of biblical salvation is a failure to see that sin is identified as both “personal” and “social” in the Bible (74, 77).

Chapter 4—Conforming to Culture or Being the Church: the origin of individualism, materialism, and relativism currently blooming in the West in the abandonment of Christian theism by Enlightenment thinkers such as Darwin, Freud, and Marx and recent movements like postmodernism (91). He argues that evangelicals have over time allowed the encroachment of these values into their churches and in fact have “conformed” to them. In light of this conformity to contemporary culture, Sider calls for a recovery of a New Testament understanding of “being the church” within evangelicalism (93). Within the heart of his call to evangelicals to be the church are the notions of “…mutual accountability and the power of the Spirit” (94), which includes recognizing and embracing the following six truths:
[numbered list]

1. Jesus (not individuals) is the center of the church (94).
2. The church of which Jesus is the center should be holy (not conforming to fallen culture, 95-96).
3. The church of which Jesus is the center should be a community (not isolated individuals, 96-102).
4. The church of which Jesus is the center should be counter-cultural rather than conformed to culture (102-106).
5. The church of which Jesus is the center should be a community of mutual accountability and availability, characterized by economic sharing and loving mutual discipline (106-109).
6. The church of which Jesus is the center is possible only when Christians yield themselves to the power of the Holy Spirit (110).

Chapter 5—Rays of Hope: and wait for that revival, Sider points to “rays of hope” in the Christian community. After describing some of them, he concludes that these point the whole evangelical community to the benefits of full surrender to the biblical Christ, which, if done, will end the scandal of the evangelical conscience.

Personal Reflections

I was reminded by Sider that we all are sinners in constant need of God's grace and revival, and I was thankful for this reminder. However, I also find the social science methodology and some of the terminology used in this book to be in need of further discussion and development.

From a “methodological” perspective: The pollsters used “abstractions” and “measurement criteria” to identify “types” of Christians and “levels of spirituality.” It could be argued that conclusions from this data are reductionist, idiosyncratic, and predicated on assumptions that such “abstractions” and “self-assessments” are valid. For example, I find it “reductionist” to equate answers to a set of eight questions as a valid means to determine if one has or has not a “biblical worldview.” I find it equally “reductionist” to consider self-determined answers to a twelve-question survey as a valid means to identify heroic and faithful Christians. To give one example of why this approach to people is problematic, the religious person described by Jesus in Luke 18:10-14 who prayed about himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get,” may very well have scored high on some of these tests used by pollsters. But, despite his self-determined success based on measurements of orthodoxy and orthopraxis that he considered valid, his despised neighbor who prayed “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” is the one Jesus deemed justified.

From a “theological” perspective: I find the New Testament teaching clear that one is either a Christian or not (1 Cor. 12:3 and Romans 8:9, among many others). I find distinctions of types of Christians such as “evangelical,” “main-line,” “nominal,” “born-again,” “non-born-again,” “saint,” “super-saint,” “biblical worldview [Christians],” etc., to be merely human distinctions. Sider reviews the New Testament and isolates what he finds to be expressions of mature, normative Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxis. I agree with this, but one can also go through the New Testament and 2,000 years of Christian history and find many examples of Christians who failed in some ways to reach the ideal and normative union of justification and sanctification.

Finally, from an “existential” perspective: For me, Sider's definition and understanding of what it means to be an “evangelical” Christian is beside the point in regard to how God may view human beings and spiritual development. “Standardized abstractions” devised by statisticians and pollsters do not capture true spiritual development, which is probably understood best by God's knowledge of where we each began our spiritual journey and how much progress we have made. C.S. Lewis points out (as Paul did in 1 Cor. 1:26-31) that Christ has always attracted “…nasty people—the little, low, timid, warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced people.” As such, Lewis concluded “We must, therefore, not be surprised if we find among Christians some people who are still nasty” because “…nasty people might be expected to turn to Christ in greater numbers than nice ones” (Mere Christianity—the chapter titled “Nice People or New Men”).

These personal reflections do not overshadow my appreciation for what Dr. Sider has done for the Christian community through this book. I think most everyone who confesses to be a Christian (Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant) would agree with Sider's prayer and call for genuine revival among confessing Christians and would hope this revival happens. I pray with Sider that his good intentions are blessed and realized in the church he so obviously loves.

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