Responding to a call from their Third World counterparts, U.S. evangelical leaders are urging church members to pay greater attention to global poverty, saying increased advocacy is necessary in light of the current U.S. financial crisis.
Last month, 21 leaders of churches in Africa, Asia, and South America wrote that the U.S. church has preached the gospel in their lands but “has not also raised its voice in protest against the injustices that powerful governments and institutions are inflicting on the global South.”
In response, several evangelical leaders, organized by the group Micah Challenges USA, spoke Monday about the need for action by U.S. churches.
“Those of us in evangelical churches are kind of late to the table on some of these issues because we’ve been focusing on more personal morality and we’ve forgotten to address the issues of public morality,” said megachurch pastor Joel Hunter of Longwood, Fla., a member of the board of the World Evangelical Alliance.
