At Yale Divinity School, Alumnus Ron Sider Presses for Activist Evangelical Social Agenda

By Mindy Roll '07 M.Div.

In a Jan. 26 talk at Yale Divinity School, evangelical thinker and preacher Ron Sider pointed to his years in New Haven as a YDS and graduate school student in the late 1960s as critical to his formation as one of America's foremost evangelical social activists.

At the time, Sider '67 B.D., '69 Ph.D., and his wife were renting an apartment from an African-American couple who struggled mightily to make ends meet. That firsthand experience with the devastating effects of poverty, coupled with an evangelical biblical orientation, was among the "real world" encounters that propelled Sider on a lifelong mission reminding fellow evangelicals about the social demands of the Gospel- and reminding mainstream Christians how important it is to ground activist agendas in Scripture.

In a talk entitled "How Do We Empower the Poor? Reflections from my Life," Sider described why he began to preach on world poverty and write books like the groundbreaking Rich Christians in an Age of Poverty, which has sold over 400,000 copies since its release in 1977. Hailed by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most influential books in religion in the twentieth century, the book drew attention to the concept of the graduated tithe, or increasing one's tithe according to one's increase in income.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Sider has been one of the nation's leading activist voices in evangelical circles. He is president and founder of Evangelicals for Social Action and a founding board member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment

"My mission, what I felt called to especially focus on, was to help Christians develop a better balance between word and deed," Sider explained to the Niebuhr Lecture Hall audience. "My whole life has been an attempt to work at a variety of issues, using that basic approach of trying to get the analysis right, then trying to develop a biblical theological framework, then saying, 'Ok, what do we about it?'"

Sider's talk was part of the Theology Live series sponsored by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, based at the Divinity School. Miroslav Volf, director of the Center, introduced Sider, saying, "When I think of people who have done theology live well, Ron Sider comes to mind." While theology is often done within the walls of academe, among great books, Volf said, it is also done "in an engaged mode, a live mode" of the sort represented by Sider.

Drawing on his own transforming experiences, Sider encouraged audience members to connect with the poor, "to look eyeball to eyeball with poverty," whether walking across the tracks or traveling to a developing country. "If anything is clear in the Bible," he asserted, "it is that God has special concern for the poor."

Sider's emphasize on linking social action to Scripture has gained him a significant following in the evangelical community. For example, when the National association of Evangelicals embarked on the process of writing a document to frame the NAE's public policy agenda, the organization turned to Sider to co-chair the process.

After several years of work and examination of a large number of Evangelical perspectives, the NAE produced "An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility." According to Sider, it encompasses not only themes that have long been dear to the evangelical consciousness, such as family and the sanctity of human life, but also themes that have been less central to the evangelical agenda, such as the poor, care of creation, peacemaking and economic justice. "Faithful evangelical civic engagement must be concerned with this WHOLE biblically balanced agenda," said Sider.

Balancing word and deed means not only reading Scripture and knowing impoverished people but also searching for "concrete proposals" to empower the poor- a process that Sider warns is not always easy. The solution, he suggested, is to study churches and ministries that successfully integrate word and action.

On a more personal note, Sider said he has "tried to be a scholar, a popularizer, and an activist." For those who might want to follow suit, he had a word of advice, based on his experience: "That is a tough set of things to put together."

Following the talk, Sider invited questions and comments from the audience.

Joseph Cumming, director of the Center for Faith and Culture's Reconciliation Program, which is engaged in Christian-Muslim dialogue, asked about the many Evangelicals who appear to turn a blind eye to the plight of Palestinians, support the war in Iraq, and applaud President's Bush's policies on terrorism.

"There is a problem here, a big problem," Sider responded. The heart of the issue for a large number of Evangelicals is the biblical eschatology that requires the founding of Israel as fulfillment of prophecy, he explained. Politically, this often means that Israel can do no wrong.

Biblical Christians committed to justice, however, "need to be talking about a two-state solution" that ensures justice and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, Sider argued.

Aris Rivera, '08 M.Div., asked about the effectiveness of churches in empowering the poor and the obstacles churches face.

"No more than one in fifty pastors talk about the poor as much as the Bible does," Sider said, noting, "That is especially problematic if you are an Evangelical who claims to make the Bible your saving authority."

Congregations that work with the poor are at their best, according to Sider, "when they in fact do provide a sensitive evangelism with a comprehensive program of socio-economic development."

"You need to preach about the biblical framework, you need to have places where people can learn about the reality of global poverty and domestic poverty," Sider remarked. "I am absolutely convinced that experiential encounters are important" whether across town or in Guatemala.

Andy Thompson '06 M.A.R. asked how the shape of poverty changed since Sider first starting speaking about it in the 1970s.

Enormous progress has been made in the fight again poverty, said Sider. But despite that progress, he pointed out, much remains to be done: "The other side is that we have 1.2 billion people who try to live on a dollar a day. That is unethical, immoral.we still have a long way to go. But we have made progress."

Sider has published 22 books, including Good News Good Works; Cup of Water, Bread of Life (1994); Living Like Jesus (1999); Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America (1999); and Churches That Make a Difference (2002).