Tony Campolo - Career

Career

Campolo is an alumnus and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St David's, Pennsylvania. He is a 1956 graduate of Eastern College, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary) and earned a Ph.D. from Temple University. He is an ordained Baptist minister and evangelist, presently serving as an associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia, which is affiliated with both the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and the American Baptist Churches USA. For ten years, he was a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Campolo founded the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), which works to help "at-risk" youth in the US and Canada, and has helped to establish several schools and universities. His best known work is a sermon entitled It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming!; recordings of which have been widely circulated in evangelical circles, and based on a sermon by a black minister at Mount Carmel Baptist Church. He is a frequent speaker at Christian conferences. He was also one of several spiritual advisers to President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal where he met with President Clinton at the White House.

Although he has associated himself with the Democratic Party and several "left wing" groups and causes, he has publicly stated his opposition to abortion and to same-sex marriage. Many of his views are in keeping with Ron Sider's "completely pro-life" stance, standing in opposition to any human situation that leads to the termination of life. He is also opposed to warfare, poverty/starvation (as caused by extreme wealth inequalities), capital punishment, and euthanasia.

Starting in the late 1980s, his left-leaning political beliefs began to put leaders of the Christian right, such as Gary Bauer and Jerry Falwell, at odds with Campolo.

Despite his criticisms of the politically conservative evangelical community, Campolo has also criticized the more liberal mainline Christian denominations because "they fail to emphasize a personal, transforming relationship with Jesus Christ."

Campolo was the subject of an informal heresy hearing in 1985 brought about by several assertions in his 1983 book A Reasonable Faith, particularly his claim that, "Jesus is actually present in each other person". The book became a hot button issue, and the controversy caused Campus Crusade for Christ and Youth for Christ to block a planned speaking engagement by Campolo. The Christian Legal Society empowered a "reconciliation panel", led by noted theologian J. I. Packer, to examine the issue and resolve the controversy. The panel examined the book and questioned Campolo. The panel issued a statement saying that although it found Campolo's statements "methodologically naïve and verbally incautious", it did not find them to be heretical.