Campolo Quotes & Sayings

When you listen to Christian radio stations - and there are thousands of them now in the United States - and when you listen to Christian television networks - and there are thousands of Christian television shows across the country - they are all politically right. — Tony Campolo

Anyone who resists the notion of women preachers is functioning as a tool of the devil. — Tony Campolo

I teach at Eastern University, which is highly committed to doing work among the poor and the oppressed peoples of the world. We have a special commitment to the city. — Tony Campolo

Who's to say that there is any more support for Freud's psychoanalytic concept of the superego than there is for that old time religion that asserted that there is a God who ordains what is right and wrong, and that His righteousness endures for all generations? — Tony Campolo

Insofar as the church fails to do the will of God, I am called upon to help it discover and to do the will of God; and I am called upon to help the government to do the same. — Tony Campolo

Tony [Campolo] and I might disagree on the details, but I think we are both trying to find an alternative to both traditional Universalism and the narrow, exclusivist understanding of hell [that unless you explicitly accept and follow Jesus, you are excluded from eternal life with God and destined for hell]. — Brian D. McLaren

I applaud the growing commitment of Evangelicals to the needs of the poor and oppressed in urban America. — Tony Campolo

We must not be so concerned with the unborn that we fail to pay attention to the born. — Tony Campolo

Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures does it say that God is omnipotent. — Tony Campolo

Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change. — Tony Campolo

President Bush once said that marriage is a sacred institution and should be reserved for the union of one man and one woman. If this is the case - and most Americans would agree with him on this - then I have to ask: Why is the government at all involved in marrying people? — Tony Campolo

While I can see how the government has, at times, wasted taxpayers' money, and I can admit that too often its programs are ineffective, I also can see the good that government does. — Tony Campolo

I think the real place where most evangelicals have trouble with the Democratic Party is on the issue of abortion. — Tony Campolo

I've always been skeptical of those television healers who are bald. If I had that gift, that'd be the first thing I'd fix. — Tony Campolo

It is hard to say what the future holds, but this is probable - it won't be just like the past. — Tony Campolo

Haitians do not need development programs imposed on them by expatriates. Instead, they need help in developing as self-assured persons. — Tony Campolo

In America, evangelical churches have often been bastions of conservatism, providing support for the status quo. — Tony Campolo

But I think it's up to a local congregation to determine whether or not a marriage should be blessed of God. And it shouldn't be up to the government. — Tony Campolo

That's what they do in Europe. You go down to the city hall and you become legally connected. You have a civil union there. Then, if you're religious, you go down to the church, and the church blesses the union. That gets the problem solved. — Tony Campolo

I don't know what to make of the Muslim mystics, especially those who have come to be known as the Sufis. What do they experience in their mystic experiences? Could they have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism? — Tony Campolo

Conservatives are people who worship at the graves of dead radicals. Stop to think about that. The people who started this country, George Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, these were not conservatives; these were the radicals of the time. In fact, conservatives always look back on people who they despised and make them into heroes. If you were to listen to the religious right today, they would make you believe that Martin Luther King was one of their flock. In reality, they hated him and did everything they could to destroy him. — Tony Campolo

Young Evangelicals, especially, are breaking ranks with older Evangelicals (over 40) and are more and more leaning towards voting Democratic. — Tony Campolo

There is a feminine side of God. I always knew this ... It is this feminine side of God I find in Jesus that makes me want to sing duets with Him ... Not only do I love the feminine is Jesus, but the more I know Jesus, the more I realize that Jesus loves the feminine in me. Until I accept the feminine in my humanness, there will be a part of me that cannot receive the Lord's love. ... There is that feminine side of me that must be recovered and strengthened if I am to be like Christ ... And until I feel the feminine in Jesus, there is a part of Him which I cannot identify. — Tony Campolo

I contend that it's impossible to read the Sermon on the Mount and not come out against capital punishment. — Tony Campolo

If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the Beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over the airwaves of North America. — Tony Campolo

Today, some of the most spiritual people I know claim to be without religion. — Tony Campolo

I am saying that there is no salvation apart from Jesus; that's my evangelical mindset. However, I am not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians — Tony Campolo

In short, I'm not sure that the abortion problem can be solved by legislation. I think it can only be solved through moral persuasion. — Tony Campolo

But isn't it time for Christians to admit that we should reject bargains if they are gained by the exploitation of the poorest of the poor in developing countries? — Tony Campolo

Furthermore, consider that as one of its most important purposes, stewardship of creation should sustain nature's worshiping capacity. The more I reflect on Scriptures and the more I sense how God thrills to the adoration He receives from all that He has created, the more I realize He has given us the awesome responsibility of caring for His creation so that it can go on praising Him until the end of time. — Tony Campolo

I am looking for suggestions on what we can do about extremists within our own society. They cannot be ignored. — Tony Campolo

The Gospel is about grace and we all know that grace is about us receiving from God blessings that we don't deserve. — Tony Campolo

Artists are the best theologians. They feel things that are true before theologians can jargonize them into obscurity. — Tony Campolo

He saved us in order that He might begin to transform His world into the kind of world that He willed for it to be when He created it. ... When Jesus saved us, He saved us to be agents of a great revolution, the end of which will come when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God — Tony Campolo

Because I am not yet living up to what Jesus expects me to be in those red letters in the Bible, I always define myself as somebody who is saved by God's grace and is on his way to becoming a Christian. ( ... ) Being saved is trusting in what Christ did for us, but being Christian is dependent on the way we respond to what he did for us. — Tony Campolo

Certain things happened in the early church. Women who had never had any freedom suddenly have the ability to stand up and speak and be treated as equals within the life of the church. — Tony Campolo

Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways. — Tony Campolo

I'm a minister, and I serve as a minister in addition to being a university professor. — Tony Campolo

I think it goes back to the fact that the evangelical community often does not have a biblical vision of God. — Tony Campolo

If marriage really is a sacred institution, then why is the government controlling it, especially in a nation that affirms separation of church and state? — Tony Campolo

Most of my fundamentalist brothers and sisters - and I am an evangelical, so I can say most of my fundamentalist brothers and sisters - are quite willing to pack women off and send them as missionaries to dangerous places where they might get killed. — Tony Campolo

He [William Jennings Bryan] recognized that what Darwin proposed on the biological level, when applied on the societal level, might legitimize an ideology that supports the survival of the fittest, with all of its dire complications. Byran was able to envision the kind of society that Social Darwinism would create- the kind of exploitation that comes from unbridled capitalism, for instance- and chose to war against it. — Tony Campolo

An evangelical is somebody who, first of all, has a very high view of Scripture, believes it's an infallible message from God. — Tony Campolo

Freud taught us that it wasn't God that imposed judgment on us and made us feel guilty when we stepped out of line. Instead, it was the superego - that idealized concept of what a good person is supposed to be and do - given to us by our parents, that condemned us for what had been hitherto regarded as ungodly behavior. — Tony Campolo

In baptism, new Christians become part of a body of fellow believers who are called to spiritually encourage one another and hold one another responsible for consistent Christian living. — Tony Campolo

Like most Christians, I believe the Genesis account of creation is a description of six different stages of creation, each of which may have taken eons of time. — Tony Campolo

A career public speaker is not what I'm called to be. I'm called to be a critic. — Tony Campolo

I do not mean that others represent Jesus for us. I mean that Jesus actually is present in each other person — Tony Campolo

The reason why I buy into the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party is because there are over 2,000 verses of Scripture that deal with responding to the needs of the poor. — Tony Campolo

As we consider the causes of depression, those of us in the church must face the ways we might be responsible for creating it. — Tony Campolo

Evangelicals need to take a good look at what their issues are. Are they really being faithful to Jesus? Are they being faithful to the Bible? — Tony Campolo

Jesus is the only Savior, but not everybody who is saved by Him is aware that He is the one who is doing the saving. — Tony Campolo

Don't be satisfied with just pumping blood. — Tony Campolo

Although I believe that scripture is divinely inspired and infallible, I have a hard time going along with the belief that the whole creation process occurred in six twenty-four hour days. — Tony Campolo

There is no doubt that religion had already waned under the onslaught of the Enlightenment, but it was Freud who provided the radically new understanding of human nature that made any religious explanation of the whats and whys of our personhood seem naive. — Tony Campolo

After-school tutoring programs, care for the elderly, shelters for the homeless, disaster relief work, and a variety of other services would all benefit from government funding. — Tony Campolo

If four years of university can increase your effectiveness of what you can do for others in the name of Christ, it is the best investment that you can make. But if the education is simply to get a job to make a lot of money, you have to raise the question of why you're doing it. — Tony Campolo

Prior to ROE V. WADE, abortions were common even though they were illegal. I don't think making them illegal again is going to solve the problem. — Tony Campolo

Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow him for the life, joy and fulfilment he gives you right now? — Tony Campolo

The Bible makes clear a basic truth that we self-centered humans find difficult to accept, namely, that the natural universe was not created primarily for us. There is no doubt that God wants us to enjoy it and even use its resources to optimize a good life for ourselves. But the ultimate purpose of creation is worship. Nature and all living things were created to glorify God. — Tony Campolo

The kingdom of God is a glorious and gigantic party! — Tony Campolo

So I really would like to see both parties respond to the poor with greater commitment. But I've got to tell you, the Democrats, I feel, are doing a better job in that respect than Republicans are. — Tony Campolo

Sigmund Freud was the apostle of disbelief. He was the one who made psychoanalysis a part of our culture, and in so doing he kicked out a flying buttress that had been essential for holding up our cathedral of faith. — Tony Campolo

To prevent discussion of any other explanations of human origins is hardly what I would expect from open-minded educators. — Tony Campolo

Rise up, you suckers, and go out and do the work of Jesus! — Tony Campolo

Marriage should be viewed as an institution ordained by God and should be out of the control of the state. — Tony Campolo

I've got some repenting to do. — Tony Campolo

The first reason for the preponderant influence of those Evangelicals who define themselves as advocates of Religious Right theological and political ideologies is that they have both the financial means and technological know-how to make widespread use of modern electronic forms of communication. — Tony Campolo

Whenever folks say radical Christianity is "a phase" of youth, I tell them they need to meet our 80-year-old nun or my friend Tony Campolo. — Shane Claiborne

Of the 22 industrialized nations of the world, we're dead last in per capita giving to poor people. — Tony Campolo

I am relatively sure, from conversations that I had with former president Bill Clinton, that George Bush seldom called upon him for advice. — Tony Campolo

If you don't believe in transcendent experience, you haven't been to the right concert, you know, you haven't used the right drugs, you haven't had sex with the right partner. — Bart Campolo

Rituals keep us from forgetting what must not be forgotten and keep us rooted in a past from which we must not be disconnected. — Tony Campolo

While a case can be made for intelligent design, I can't figure out why some Christians are so thrilled about that possibility. First of all, it doesn't prove there's a God. If anything, intelligent design lends support to some form of pantheism that defines God as immanent within nature. — Tony Campolo

There is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to both men and women in the New Testament. This is what makes the New Testament a New Testament rather than the Old Testament, in which women did not have such privileges. — Tony Campolo

Through the ages, God has used the church to keep alive and pass down the story of what Christ has done for us. — Tony Campolo

We ought to get out of the judging business. We should leave it up to God to determine who belongs in one arena or another when it comes to eternity. What we are obligated to do is to tell people about Jesus, and that's what I do. — Tony Campolo

I contend the state ought to do its thing and provide legal rights for all couples who want to be joined together for life. The church should bless unions that it sees fit to bless, and they should be called marriages. — Tony Campolo

And we've got to ask ourselves some very serious questions as to whether or not certain religious leaders, in terms of raising money - I hate to bring this up - are pushing hot buttons. — Tony Campolo

I don't think that John Kerry is the Messiah or the Democratic Party is the answer, but I don't like the evangelical community blessing the Republican Party as some kind of God-ordained instrument for solving the world's problems. — Tony Campolo

Religion, for better or for worse, has been politicized in blatant ways that have seldom been equaled in American elections. — Tony Campolo

A person is as young as their dreams and as old as their cynicism. — Tony Campolo

The gospel is not about ... pie-in-the-sky when they die ... It is imperative that the up and coming generation recognize that the biblical Jesus was committed to the realization of a new social order in this world ... Becoming a Christian, therefore, is a call to social action. — Tony Campolo

It has taken countless hours of prayer, study, conversation and emotional turmoil to bring me to the place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church. — Tony Campolo

There are 2,000 verses of Scripture that tell us we must be committed to protecting the poor and the oppressed ... There is no concern of Scripture that is addressed so often and so powerfully as reaching out to the poor. — Tony Campolo

The Jesus of the Scripture transcends all nations and calls all nations into judgment. — Tony Campolo

Evangelical Christians, who once were a ridiculed irrelevant sectarian movement, have, over just three decades, become a powerful voting bloc that can no longer be ignored. — Tony Campolo

I think there are other issues that the Democrats could use to rally evangelicals. There are a lot of us, for instance, who believe that the Bible calls us to be environmentally responsible. — Tony Campolo

What we need to affirm is that Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Whenever we marry Jesus to a political party, we are committing the sin of idolatry. We are making Jesus into the image of our political party. — Tony Campolo

Tony Campolo and I both speak a lot, and we began to notice that there were some crowds of old folks that desperately needed some youthful energy, and there were other crowds of young folks that desperately needed some aged wisdom. — Shane Claiborne

We don't have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don't convert, they are God's people, God loves them, and we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. I think that what we all have to do is leave judgment up to God. The Muslim community is very evangelistic, however what Muslims will not do is condemn Jews and Christians to Hell if in fact they do not accept Islam. — Tony Campolo

From the beginning, there have been some religious leaders who greeted the funding of faith-based social services by government with ambivalence. — Tony Campolo

Whenever there is a catastrophe, some religious people inevitably ask, 'Why didn't God do something? Where was God when all those people died?' — Tony Campolo

If a guy is intimidated by a woman in leadership, he has real problems with his own concepts of masculinity. That's a harsh statement, but I believe it to be true. — Tony Campolo

I contend that, in spite of all that might be said about Watergate, Richard Nixon was good for the poor people of America. — Tony Campolo

When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying? — Tony Campolo

If being human requires freedom, then enslavement to the cares of this world is dehumanizing. — Tony Campolo

Most of us are tiptoeing through life so we can reach death safely. We should be praying, "If I should wake before I die ... " Life can get away from you. — Tony Campolo

If fulfillment is gained through giving ourselves through intimate relationships, then allowing ourselves to be consumed with the cares of things, instead of the care of persons, is foolish. — Tony Campolo

In religious circles, depression is often deemed to be a spiritual condition that can be cured with prayer. — Tony Campolo